Breaking Points
by Lynn Richards
Summary: Gaara reached one, and now the name of the game has changed. Kagami wonders if what is happening is still a game, and refuses to break under the red head's pressure. GaaOC. Rated Mature for my Oc's foul mouth and Gaara's completely believable sexiness AU
1. Naruto's Heroine

**Hahahaha! Yes! That is all the summary you get! You must read to find out more! ^.^ I hope you enjoy it!**

Chapter 1: Heroine

I dragged myself out from underneath my green covers, groaning at the loud music blaring from my alarm clock. My hand slammed down on the off button as I passed the offensive device on my way to the bathroom. I hated being woken up. The bathroom door was locked, and I heard the sound of running water coming from inside. _That stupid bitch._

My fist connected with the door three times in quick succession, "Get out of the fucking bathroom Karin!" I should have known that my stupid sister would have gotten up early for our first day at a new school, even though I had told her that I was going to use the bathroom at six thirty. I stomped off to use my parents' bathroom. Her water could run cold for all I cared.

Karin was pissed the entire way to school. I didn't understand why the way she looked mattered so much, no one cared about freshman anyways. I sighed; she was good looking though, I wouldn't be surprised if it was just like our old school, her being hit on by senior guys, and me having to kick their faces in for talking to her. That wouldn't surprise me one bit at all. She was like a porcelain doll in a living, breathing form. Perfectly straight black hair fell to her shoulders, her blue eyes were crystal clear, and she had the body and complexion of a model. Maybe people did care about freshmen, one at least.

I, on the other had, was five inches shorter than her five foot nine, with short brown hair, grey blue eyes, and a body that was thin in some places and way too big in others. My freshman sister looked like she belonged in the junior year more than I did.

The parking lot was nearly full when I pulled in. I cursed our lateness, and Karin glared at me. She could deal with my foul mouth. As soon as I was out of the car, I separated from her immediately, hoping that I wouldn't have the unfortunate experience of being immediately compared to her. I was so glad that I was two years ahead of her and she wasn't very smart. We never had to share any classes.

I got my schedule from the office, and headed to class, not wanting to be later than I already was. The class went silent as I walked through the door. I sighed; this was going to be annoying. I glanced at the teacher, and then went to take the only empty seat at the back of the room. Eyes followed me as I walked past them, and I ignored them. New schools sucked. I dumped my backpack on the ground next to my desk and sat down, leaning back to get comfortable. I'd already taken Government, but it was the only class I could get into for first hour, transferring so late in the year. At least I wouldn't have to try at all.

The teacher looked at me from the front of the room and then addressed the class, "I am assuming that is Kagami Yamaguchi, our new student." His voice was low and he sounded bored. Considering the half lidded look to his eyes, I kind of doubted he was much interested in the class. Maybe he would let us out early.

"Hey." A whispered voice called to me from my right as soon as the teacher sat down to read a book at his desk.

I turned my head just enough to see a boy with spiky canary yellow hair and scars on his cheeks. He was dressed in an orange shirt and black pants, and I didn't quite have the heart to tell him that Halloween had been two months ago. He was cute, in an over exuberant, happy way. His grin almost stretched from ear to ear, literally. I wasn't sure I had ever seen a mouth quite so wide.

"What?" I asked, trying not to sound irritable, but I believe I failed.

His grin didn't slip at all and he stuck out a hand, "I'm Naruto Uzumaki!" His voice was so friendly and his blue eyes shone so brightly that I couldn't help but take his hand.

"Kagami Yamaguchi." I said quietly, noticing the looks of the other classmates around us. Naruto scooted his desk closer to mine after releasing my hand.

The teacher didn't even spare a glance our way. I looked around and noticed the other conversations quietly taking place around the room. Obviously Mr. Hatake didn't mind kids not paying attention. I liked teachers like that.

"So, you're new right? I've never seen you before."

I sighed, "Yes. I just moved here about a week ago. Today is my first day of school."

He reached out to touch the fingerless gloves I was wearing, "Why are you wearing gloves?"

I almost regretted talking to the boy, he seemed really stupid, "It's cold outside, in case you haven't noticed." I told him, stretching my legs out underneath the desk in front of me. My feet bumped into the person sitting there and a pair of black eyes met mine.

"Leaver her alone Sasuke!" Naruto said firmly.

The raven haired boy ignored him and flicked his eyes up and down me in a manner that I assumed was supposed to make me feel inferior. I frowned at him, looking to Naruto, "Is he a mute?" I asked, wondering why he had just turned around to stare at me. I wasn't much to look at.

"He's just an asshole."

"Ah." I said, instantly understanding, I knew exactly what he meant.

Sasuke turned back around and I heard him mutter, "Idiot." And Naruto proceeded to tell me the names of all of his friends and asked me if I wanted to sit with him at lunch.

I politely agreed to the offer, hoping that his friends weren't all as obviously handicapped as he was. The boy was nice, but a little on the dumb side. I wondered how he had survived through high school; probably his charismatic charm had done it. I chuckled quietly at that thought as we left class.

I had two more classes until lunch and Naruto wasn't in either of them. Considering they were both AP classes, I wasn't surprised that he was not in them. At lunch time, I became completely lost.

Naruto had invited me to eat with him, but once I had gotten my food, I didn't know where he was. I wasn't very tall, so looking over the heads of the huge crowd of students was out of the question. I set my tray down at a semi empty table near the doors, waiting to see if he was just late to lunch.

The clatter of loud voices outside the cafeteria doors made me look up. Maybe Naruto was out there, with them. I stood and went out into the hallway to see a crowd of students getting increasingly louder. I heard the word fight, over and over. I was about to turn and walk away when I saw a mop of yellow hair through a gap between the students, and my feet carried me through the crowd. I pushed people out of my way until I saw that they had formed a circle, a circle around two students, Naruto, and another guy with brick red hair and a tattoo on his forehead.

I sighed, was I really going to involve myself in this? The answer was: yes, I was. Like I had done so many times at my previous school, I stepped in between the two boys, facing the red head. I hated it when people fought, especially at school; it was a waste of time.

My eyes met the icy blue of the boy's in front of me and I almost just walked right back out of the circle. The look he had on his face was absolutely murderous. This kid was itching for a fight. The only other time I had seen an expression even close to that on another person's face I had gone to the hospital after getting the shit beaten out of me. _Dammit, why couldn't Naruto have picked on some other emo kid?_

The black makeup around the guy's eyes made me think that Naruto had started this. When a person needed to reassure themselves of their toughness, they picked on the weak, or who they assumed would be weak. The ones who acted or dressed differently were always the first ones to get picked on. This boy with a kanji tattoo, unnaturally colored hair, and dark makeup was a prime victim for bullies, I also recognized him from one of my AP classes. _Naruto doesn't seem like a bully though, maybe this kid started the fight._

I could feel the eyes of the onlookers focused on me now, great, just great. My first day at a new school and I was already the center of attention. This fucking blew.

I looked at Naruto, "Get out of here, idiot, and don't pick anymore fights." My lunch was probably gone, I would have to buy another one, and maybe I would pressure Naruto into buying me more. He was, after all, going to owe me for this.

"Get out of my way." A low, quiet voice said from behind me. I cast a glance at the other boy over my shoulder.

"Wanna kick his ass?" I didn't wait for a response, "Well I don't care. Go away, both of you." I looked back at Naruto, ignoring the red head that was practically vibrating with anger behind me. _What did Naruto do to piss him off so badly?_

Naruto grinned at me, grabbing my arm, "See you later Gaara!" He said, taking off at a quick pace, dragging me along with him. Once we were in the lunch room, he stopped for a moment, "Thanks for that. Gaara would have kicked my ass."

I glared at his bright smile, "Why the hell was he so angry with you anyways."

He looked down, a slight blush creeping up into his cheeks, "I accidentally ran into him in the hallway and knocked him over."

"He was going to fight you over _that_?" I asked, the nerve of the red head pissing me off.

Naruto smiled sheepishly, "He's pretty volatile, easy to set off. Really angry. I had kind of thought of us as uneasy friends, but now I don't really believe he has any friends." He led me over to a table and sat down. There was only one seat left next to him, and all the people there looked at me expectantly.

The blond haired boy grinned at his friends, "Hey guys, this is Kagami Yamaguchi. She's new here." His over excited tone made me wince; he then pointed to each on in turn, "This is Sakura, Ino, Lee, and Kiba." The first was a girl with pink hair, the second a blond female who was currently fighting over a sandwich with the aforementioned, the third a boy with black bowl cut hair and bushy eye brows, and the other guy had short, messy brown hair and a huge white service dog sitting in the chair next to him. I looked at the dog, then at his obvious owner who was feeding him pieces of his lunch

Kiba looked up at me and grinned, looking a bit feral, "Akamaru helps me with my anger management." He looked at the dog, then shooed him off of the seat. Kiba's dark eyes met mine, "Why don't you come sit next to me instead of that loser blond kid?" He patted the chair, giving me a friendly smile.

"Asshole! Why would she want to sit next to you?!" Naruto yelled loudly at the boy across the table. Kiba shrugged in response, looking at me with a grin on his face. He was just trying to set Naruto off, and it was working.

The pink haired girl looked up and the other one snorted loudly, "And why would she want to sit next to _you_, Naruto?" Sakura asked skeptically.

Naruto looped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me roughly to him, and I winced a little at his strength, "She saved me from Gaara! Kagami is my friend, way better than you guys have treated me!" He yelled. I was beginning to wonder if he had any other volume levels besides whisper and yell.

His four friends looked at me abruptly, and I copied Kiba's shrug from earlier, "The red head had no reason to be picking a fight with Naruto." I told them simply.

Lee spoke for the first time, eyes wide, "I'm trained in martial arts and I wouldn't even get between Gaara and his victims. He scares me." The black haired boy shuddered.

"He tries to beat up on other people?" I asked, contempt for the red haired kid starting to rise in me. Who the hell did he think he was? I really hoped that I didn't have him in any of my classes. I definitely knew that this Gaara kid wasn't going to like me much if he made a habit of beating the shit out of other kids.

Kiba nodded, "And anyone he picks a fight with ends up with broken bones and a hospital bill."

I frowned, "Sounds like this asshole needs some straightening out."

Naruto shook me violently, staring at me with wide blue eyes, "Please stay away from him Tara!"

"I'll be careful." I told him, smiling to dissuade his fear. Naruto relaxed and handed me part of his sandwich.

"Eat up!"

**Author's Note: I am a few chapters ahead on this fanfic, so if I get a lot of reviews, I'll post faster….there's your incentive if you want to read more. I write for reviews! . 'Cause I can't get any better if you guys don't tell me what I'm doing wrong…or good for that matter! ^.^**


	2. Chemistry

**Thanks to Wordsplat, Kchanheart, and Kida-of-the-Wolves for you reviews…I decided to post this early for you faithful guys. ^.^**

Chapter 2: Chemistry

After lunch, I walked into my chemistry classroom and I was confronted by the teacher, a man with black hair cut very similar to the boy Lee that I had met at lunch. "Ah! More bright youthfulness to add to our young classroom!" He exclaimed, pulling me towards his desk, "You must be the lovely Kagami Yamaguchi!" He handed me a textbook, "I am Guy." He looked down at a seating chart on his desk and I caught the wince that dimmed his bright smile.

"Where can I sit?" I asked blandly, pissed off that this was a partner based class. I hated working in groups, depending on other people to get things done always got me bad grades.

Mr. Guy gave me an apologetic smile, "I would like to say that I will be partnering you with another wonderful youth, but unfortunately everyone has a partner except for Gaara Sabaku." He told me, gesturing to an empty table in the back. Obviously the nasty red head hadn't arrived yet.

"Thank you, Mr. Guy." I said glumly, walking slowly over to the table, aware of every eye that watched me as I passed them. The room was very quiet as I sat down and I looked up to the door.

The red head had arrived, and was glaring straight at me like he wanted to kill me. I sighed, this was going to be the most annoying class ever, I was sure of it. _If that asshole tries to start anything, I might not be able to refrain from ruining that perfect face of his._ That perfect face was currently so full of rage I almost second guessed my description of perfect, but even in his anger he was flawless. The good looking ones were always assholes. His blue eyes reminded me of glaciers the look he gave me was so frozen. I gazed back at him with a bored look, wondering if he was going to turn around and walk back out of the classroom. A guy like him seemed to be someone who didn't have any qualms about skipping class.

Unfortunately, Gaara Sabaku began to walk slowly towards our table, the table that we would share until the end of the school year. Too bad I was too late to transfer; I didn't doubt that having a partner like him was going to hurt my grade.

He looked down at me once he reached the table and I frowned at him, "What do you want?" I asked sharply.

His black rimmed eyes narrowed, "You are sitting in my seat." He told me in a low voice.

I rolled my eyes, "Yeah? So what? Get here earlier and you can pick whatever seat you want." I studied the kanji tattoo on his forehead as he stood there, seething. I recognized it as the word 'love.' What the hell was an angry guy like him doing tattooing the word love on his forehead? It seemed an odd choice, I thought something more along the lines of 'kill' or 'pain' would suit him better.

He yanked back the empty chair next to the aisle and before I could react, moved around me and shoved me and my chair into its place. He brought his chair around and sat next to the window in one fluid, easy movement. I, on the other hand, was gripping the table after trying not to fall out of my chair.

"What the hell?" I said loudly, letting my fist fly towards him. I didn't take shit like that from anyone, to hell with getting in trouble. This guy was an asshole, a spoiled asshole.

He caught my fist. _He caught my fist._ I stared at him, frozen. His icy light blue eyes were boring into me, "Do not touch me." His voice was as cold as those ice cubes I was calling eyes.

I ripped my hand from his grip and turned to face the teacher, who was glaring at Gaara, "Be nice to the new student Gaara, or I will have to partner you up with your brother." Mr. Guy told him.

The red head ignored the man's words and stared out the window. The rest of the class turned back to face the teacher, but continued to cast looks back at our table as Mr. Guy put a video on. I was so glad that we didn't have to do a lab today. I probably would have gotten into a fight with the red headed prick. _Dammit! How am I supposed to do this class with a partner like him?_

I looked at Gaara no Sabaku out of the corner of my eye as our teacher fiddled with the DVD player. He was a great looking guy after the lines of anger were smoothed from his face. His expression wasn't quite peaceful as he gazed out the window, but one of concentration. I noticed how the liner around his eyes made them seem paler, but not grey like mine. His red hair was a perfect match for his pale skin tone too, and it looked kind of cute falling into his face on the side without the tattoo. I shook my head. _This asshole isn't worth your attention._

About a quarter of the way through the movie, the guy in front of me moved so I couldn't see. I sighed and scooted my chair over towards Gaara. The red head's cold eyes glanced at me for a moment and I ignored him, focusing on the completely boring video we were watching on something like atomic structure. I wasn't interested at all, but it was easier to lock out the waves of tension coming from the guy next to me if I paid attention.

"You won't be able to protect the Uzumaki kid forever." His hard voice spoke into my ear.

I jerked away from him, wondering how I had missed him closing the gap between us. My eyes narrowed, "I'll follow him around if that's what it will take."

A smirk marred his handsome face, "You gonna follow the kid home?" He mocked, staying close so I could hear his low tone.

"Why the hell do you want to beat on Naruto?" I asked, anger starting to heat me. This guy was absolutely ridiculous.

Gaara leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes, "That kid needs to learn some respect."

I reached out to grab his arm, meaning to shake him or something like that, to knock some fucking sense into his thick fricken skull. He knocked my hand away without opening his eyes and growled out three words, "Don't touch me."

"So you're going to make Naruto respect you by beating the shit out of him?" I asked, not understanding this guy's messed up thought process at all, "Not everything can be solved with your fist in someone's face." I added harshly.

He looked at me, a bland expression in his eyes, "That's easy for you to say. All a girl has to have are some tits and a nice ass and they get whatever they want." His eyes glanced up and down my body, "And I see that you are not lacking in either of those departments." He told me with absolutely no emotion in his voice.

The crudity of his words shocked me so much that I stood up abruptly, my chair making a loud scraping noise. It took me about three seconds of staring down into those laughing ice colored eyes to realize that I had the attention of the entire classroom. The heat that was in my face doubled and I sat down, moving my chair into the aisle so I could see the video screen and not have to sit near Gaara Sabaku. I was going to kill him before the school year was over.

It occurred to me randomly towards the end of the class that there would have been no way for the red head to see the shape of my ass while I was sitting down. If anyone had looked at me in that moment, they would have seen another heated blush rise to my cheeks. _He checked me out after I kept him from beating up Naruto. _ No, he just said it to get a rise out of me, _there's no way that idiot would even be interested in girls, all he cares about is himself._

I am not ashamed to admit that I bolted from the classroom the moment the bell rang. I wouldn't have put it past Gaara to make fun of me between classes, since it was obviously going to become one of his favorite past times in Chemistry.

Once in my last class, I relaxed when I saw that Gaara was not in it. Having to endure my last class of the day with that prick would have sent me over the edge. Instead, I doodled on a piece of paper while our teacher, a man with a pony tail and a thick scar over the bridge of his nose talked about short stories. This was going to be another easy class.

"Kagami!" I turned to see my sister waving her hand over the heads of walking students after class had ended for the day. I pushed past a couple of people who looked at me with expressions that were a mixture of surprise and fear. They must have either heard about me standing up to Gaara, or saw it. I was beginning to really see just exactly how much everyone at this school seemed to fear him. I wondered how he hadn't gotten expelled yet.

"How was your day?" I asked Karin, falling into step beside her.

Her blue eyes sparkled and she grinned, "Great! I already made some friends!" Her eyes then narrowed on me, "I heard you've already picked a fight with the resident bad boy of the school." She said accusingly.

I rolled my eyes, "I didn't pick a fight with him. I just went in, grabbed a friend, and left. I didn't hit anyone." I smiled, "I promise."

Karin sighed, "It's our first day Kagami, and I've already heard enough about that boy to make me never want to even see what he looks like, so stay away from him, okay?"

"If he keeps picking on Naruto, I won't have much choice but to get involved."

Her eyes lit up and she changed the subject, "Naruto? That boy is friends with that guy in your grade Sasuke! He is soooo cute!" She gushed. I then proceeded to tune her out. She sounded like Sakura and Ino at the lunch table.

We entered the parking lot and my eyes immediately went to the huge crowd of students blocking the cars from leaving. _Shit! Naruto!_ I thrust my back pack at my sister, who stopped in mid sentence, "Hold this!" I yelled back at her as I sprinted towards the kids who were egging on a fight.

"Get the hell out of my way!" I yelled at the kids, pushing them out of my way in my furious effort to get into the center. There was no way that there was anyone else in the center of the circle except for Naruto and the red head. When I finally made it past the wall of kids, I saw that damage had already been done.

Gaara had gone for Naruto's face, and the kid was bleeding out of one corner of his mouth, but still standing. The red head didn't have a scratch on him, but that was about to change. I picked my priority and moved in front of Naruto, making my body into a shield for him.

"Fuck off Sabaku!" I said, dropping into a defensive stance in case he decided to hit me. I didn't doubt that he had no problems with hitting girls.

"Get out of my way, little girl." The crowd had gone quiet, so I heard every word that he said in that low, freezing voice.

I glared at him, slowly pushing Naruto backwards, "Just leave Gaara. This is over. You hit him. It's done." I told him.

I watched the thought process flicker through his eyes for a second before they hardened again and his mouth twisted into a cruel smile. In a movement that I had trouble seeing, he was in front of me and had me by my upper arm. The red head tightened his grip and began to drag me out of the middle of the crowd. Everyone got out of his way, and didn't even try to help me as Gaara dragged me away.

**Author's Note: Here you are…I'm a little disappointed in myself for posting this against my will…maybe this little bit of interesting stuff will catch your eyes. ^.^ Review away!**


	3. Parking Lot

**Thanks to those of you who have been faithful, so I am posting another chapter! ^.^ Wish me luck on getting the further chapters out of my mind and into the computer!**

Chapter 3: We're In the School Parking Lot!

My free hand balled into a fist as I tried to pull away from him, but he was strong. I couldn't break the grip he had on my arm and I weighed so little that he had no trouble taking me where he wanted. I let my fist fly and he blocked it with an arm easily, without even glancing at me. He pulled keys out of his pocket and dug my heels into the pavement. I was not getting into a car with this maniac.

"Knock it off. You're just going to hurt yourself." He growled under his breath, pressing a button on the key chain he held. A sleek black car with heavily tinted windows chirped in response to his device, and I began to fight with everything I had. _Why the hell wasn't anyone helping me? Were they really this afraid of one guy? He's not even that big, he isn't even taller than me!_

The red head ripped open the back door on the passenger side and shoved me in, grinning as he followed right behind me. The look in his icy blue eyes scared the hell out of me. _What the hell is he thinking?_ I moved to the other side of the car as fast as I could and tried to get the door open. A pale hand snaked out and hit the lock, then hit a button in the front seat after he closed the door behind him.

"Child locks." Gaara told me, that cruel smile back in place. My heart was beating so fast that I thought it would jump out of my chest. _I have my cell phone, I can use that, but only when he's not looking._

He moved closer to me in the spacious area, sliding along the seat. I pressed myself up against the door and raised my fists to pound on the black glass. Gaara's hands were around my wrists before I could even make the motion. Time suddenly slowed down. I stared into those cold eyes and wondered what was going to happen to me. The red head transferred both of my wrists into one hand and the other went to my waist. _What the hell?_

The look in his eyes wasn't completely cold now; there was a hint of something that looked like he was stalking prey, which was equally scary. Gaara was definitely deranged. The thought that maybe I shouldn't have messed with him in the first place crossed my mind, but there was nothing I could do now. I had made my decision and I wasn't going to regret it. I had saved Naruto from getting his face beaten in any worse than it already had been.

I began to hyperventilate. My breathing was so frantic, that I knew I was going to run out of air very quickly. Whenever I got hysterical, this happened and I was pissed. I did not want to pass out in a car with Gaara. He'd probably kill me while I was out.

"Oh, are you scared now, little girl?" He moved his knees to either side of my legs that were pressed very tightly together, and I fought to calm down. Being unconscious in this situation would drastically decrease the fun I was having and seeing as the fun meter was already negative, I was in trouble.

My breath began to come a little bit more normal, and a part of me relaxed now that I wasn't in danger of passing out right now. "Get off of me." I said angrily, wondering why I even demanded it, there was no way he was letting me go.

I watched his muscles bunch under the tight black t shirt he was wearing as his grip tightened on my wrists. I let out a small sound as I felt the bones grind together and he smiled fiercely, eyes completely filled with that predatory look now. For a second I was absolutely afraid that he might bite a chunk of my skin out with his perfect white teeth.

His eyes closed halfway, and the way that he looked at me out from underneath his eyelids suddenly ignited a completely different fear inside of me. _Is he going to rape me in the school parking lot? Why the hell hasn't anyone called the police or something?_

"Please just let me go." I whispered, closing my eyes against the terrifying darkness in his eyes. My heart was pounding, and I was on the verge of hyperventilating again. If I passed out, who knew what he would do to me?

The moment I felt soft lips on mine, my eyes shot open. He held my hands straight above my head and nothing besides his hands, his lips, and his knees touched me.

I had never been kissed before.

I gasped for a breath and Gaara took complete advantage of my open mouth, instantly controlling me as his lips moved against mine slowly, seductively. I screwed my eyes shut, unable to look at his red hair in my face as he tried to get a response from me. His lips were so soft, and the moment his tongue traced the edge of my lower lip, I came completely undone.

My body didn't comprehend the fact that I was kissing _Gaara_ back. It just knew that there was an attractive guy holding me captive and taking advantage of me, and it didn't mind at all. I relaxed into his hold as he plunged his tongue into my mouth, tasting me and tangling it with mine. A sob escaped from my lips into his mouth and I fought against his hand restricting my arms, some part of me wanting to touch his body. These feelings were so unfamiliar to me and only the tiniest section of my brain registered that I was getting my first kiss from someone who was more than likely planning to give me enough injuries to require medical treatment after he had his fun.

A low noise came from the red head's throat and he pressed his upper body against mine, pinning me to the door. The pain of the irregularities of the door pressing into my back only fed the feelings that were currently running from my lips down into the pit of my stomach. I was lost. My only coherent thought at this point was that if he didn't stop, I wouldn't stop. He suddenly yanked on my captive wrists and the pain shot right through me like the feeling in my lips did. A soft, drawn out sound went from my mouth to Gaara's and he chuckled back into me, putting more pressure on my already tight arms. The gasp that burst out of me and the feeling of something like electricity shooting down to my middle brought to light something that I had never known about myself before.

Gaara took his mouth from mine and I opened my eyes, hearing that his breathing was just as heavy as my own. He looked at me with hooded lids, slivers of ice barely visible between his thick black lashes and eye liner. Another chuckle came up his throat, "I didn't think that you were going to be so much fun." He told me, sliding the hand at my waist under my shirt to touch the bare skin of my back.

I was sure that my eyes were wide as the sensation of his hand touching so much of my bare skin took effect on me. I was in so much trouble right at this moment. His grip was still painfully tight on my wrists and I didn't mind at all.

Something flashed in his light colored eyes and his hand moved around to my stomach. My mind was a little bit clearer now that his lips weren't on mine and I had enough sense to be drenched in fear. No matter how good the kiss had felt, no matter how much I enjoyed what he was doing to me, I was a virgin, and I did not want to have sex with Gaara, especially not in the back seat of his car in the parking lot at our school.

I struggled against his hold on me, "I don't fuck on the first date." I told him, my breath coming out quickly.

His hand stopped its slow ascent up my rib cage and his eyes widened momentarily, and then went back to being heavy lidded. A slow smile curved the lips that had just been on mine, "You're a virgin, aren't you, little girl?" He said it as a question, but his tone told me he had already guessed the answer.

The red head took his hand out from under my shirt and threaded his fingers through my short hair, "Then I guess I'll just have to make you mine in a more obvious way." His words brought my anger right to the surface. _His? His?!_

"I'm not your--"

My words were cut off by the way he wrenched my head to the side, using my hair as a handle. It didn't feel as good because I was definitely not feeling the effects of the kiss anymore. It fucking hurt. "Let--"

When his mouth touched the exposed side of my neck, the pain of his grip on my hair was forgotten, and I relaxed into Gaara's control. He literally had complete control over my body. His knees were squeezing my thighs together so that I couldn't move my legs, one hand kept my head immobile, the other my arms, and his upper body pinned the rest of me. I couldn't move except to pull against his hand in my hair, which, when I tried, he just pulled back harder.

The red head's mouth moved against my skin, making me shudder in his hold. Something about the way I couldn't move was frighteningly making me want him to do whatever he wanted. That thought tried to scare me, but I forgot it once his tongue ran along the column of my neck. "What are you--?"

He latched onto my skin with his mouth and sucked it between his teeth, biting down ever so slightly. My whole body pressed itself tighter to him against me. _I think he's giving me a hickey,_ was my first thought, and _my parents are going to kill me_ was quick on its heels, but neither of them lasted more than the time it took to think them.

I had absolutely nothing to compare the feeling to, not even the kiss he had given me just moments ago. The sensation of his mouth pulling on my tight, sensitive skin was just so much more overwhelming, and made the heat in my belly grow much faster than the kiss had. My breath was so ragged I was surprised that I was getting sufficient oxygen to stay conscious, the effect Gaara was having on me was so intoxicating that I wasn't even sure that I cared whether my brain was getting enough oxygen or not.

Gaara's teeth closed down on the section of my skin that he was paying so much attention to and my whole body threw itself against him in an involuntary movement.

"Gaara!" I gasped out his name and he drew my skin back into his mouth, sucking harder than before so that it was now just this side of pain. It felt like nothing I had ever experienced before. I never realized that the skin on a person's neck was so sensitive; I now understood why couples gave each other hickeys.

When he lifted his head from my neck, he looked into my eyes from inches away, "I like hearing you say my name like that." His voice was low and full of that same inexplicable darkness in his eyes, making me shudder.

He chuckled ever so slightly, and closed his eyes. When he opened them, the darkness was gone, he was back to being the cold, icy Gaara that made more sense to me, or at least I understood his intentions better. "Here's the deal, little girl." He told me, using my hair to force me to look up at him. He was pretty much in my lap, and his brick red hair was brushing the ceiling of his car, "Every time you try to keep me from bashing some kids face in, I will make you say my name just like that."

My breath hitched in my throat, wondering just exactly how far he was going to go with this. _Who is he to make up rules for me?_ I groaned mentally, _oh yeah, he's the one guy that I probably can't beat up because he's too fast, and I happen to be very, very attracted to him physically._

Gaara pressed his forehead to mine and I could smell his sweet breath on my face, breath that smelled of my skin now, "I don't care who sees us." He whispered, "Or where we are, I will make my name come from your lips in that soft, desperate way, and you will be absolutely mortified every single time I do it, even as you enjoy what I am doing to you."

I shut my eyes against his so close to mine and shuddered at his words. My body had just betrayed me so absolutely. He was right. I would probably enjoy every ounce of sexual attention that he gave me, but if anyone saw us together, I would feel ashamed. He had just found the best weapon he could use against me.

"You are an asshole." I muttered, opening my eyes as he took his face away from mine.

His ice cold eyes bored into mine, "You can go now, little girl." Simultaneously, he released his hold on my hands and my hair, moving away from me to put space between us. I glared at him as I rubbed my red wrists and he reached over the center console to press a button. I unlocked the door immediately and threw it open, gasping in the fresh air. I hadn't realized how hot it had been in the car with him.

Gaara followed me out and grabbed my wrist before I could run as far from him as I could get, forcing me to turn around. His other hand reached up to the left side of my neck and I winced, flinching away from his as he touched the bruised spot there. "Ow." I complained, trying to pull my wrist out of his unyielding grip

He narrowed his eyes at me, "Don't even think about covering that up tomorrow little girl, or I will rip your shirt away from your neck." Gaara pulled me closer to him so that our faces were separated by a breath, "Or cover it up, I would very much like to see you without a shirt on." He smirked and released me. I backed away from him, watching to make sure he didn't follow me, and then turned around to see my sister across the lot with two other girls.

I ran to her and heard the roar of a loud engine. Gaara's car drove by us and I kept myself from letting my eyes following its retreating form. _What the hell am I going to do about him?_ I disregarded the thought, because my sister was on the ground, crying, mascara running down her face in muddy streams.

"What's the matter Karin?" I asked, kneeling in front of her. She looked up and threw her arms around my neck.

"Oh my god! You're all right Kagami! I thought he was going to kill you! And when you didn't come out for a long time…" My little sister blubbered into my shirt, soaking it through in a matter of moments with her flood of tears.

I wrapped my arms around her, "Its okay Karin, I'm fine, okay?"

"Is that a hickey?" A blond girl asked, peering at my neck. I glared at her and Karin's head shot up.

She quickly wiped her eyes and looked at what was probably a large purpling bruise on my neck. "What the heck Kagami? Is that from Gaara? Mom and dad are going to kill you!" She punched me in the shoulder weakly, narrowing her bright eyes at me, "You had me worried, and you were just necking with him?!"

"Please don't say anything Karin." I said, getting up and helping her to her feet. I grabbed my backpack from its place on the ground next to her and led her away from the two girls she had been with.

Once in my car, I drove off, wanting to get home as fast as possible. Today had been the most hellish first day of school ever. I wanted the day to be over and for tomorrow to start already. I groaned mentally as I realized I would just have to go back to school tomorrow and face the red haired fucker again. I almost banged my head against the steering wheel, but caught the look my sister was giving me.

"What?" I asked at her slightly horrified expression. I then noticed her death grip on the door handle.

I looked back to the road, I was still in my lane, maybe I had drifted.

"You almost hit oncoming traffic, and you ask me what?!" She almost yelled.

I rolled my eyes, "Sorry, my head is a little out of it, getting black mailed by a guy I hardly know isn't exactly my idea of a good first day at school."

Karin's eyes narrowed, "How is he blackmailing you? By the look of that hickey, you two seem pretty comfortable together."

Heat rose in my cheeks and I stared at the road ahead, "Forget it. Just please don't tell mom and dad about the hickey."

She laughed, "I don't think I'll have to _tell_ them, I'm sure they'll _see_ it."

At home, I managed to pull the collar of my jacket up and sneak past my parents to change into a turtleneck that would sufficiently hide the hickey on my neck. I ventured to the bathroom to look at the mark and a small sound escaped from my throat. It was absolutely HUGE. The thing was red and purple and was about two inches across. There was no way anyone at school was missing this tomorrow.

The thought crossed my mind to stay home from school, but I knew it would take at least a week for the damn thing to heal. Why the hell had he done this to me? The red head's words flashed through my mind, _"Then I guess I'll just have to make you mine in a more obvious way."_ My mind reeled over that, did he think we were dating or something? Because I had definitely not agreed to that.

I went back into my room and sat on my bed, burying my face in my hands. _I am so screwed!_ The fresh memories of Gaara's lips on mine and his controlling grip took hold of me and played over and over in my mind. He had me snared through and through. Whatever he was hoping to accomplish by his little plan to keep me from interrupting his fights was probably going to work. I didn't think I was going to be able to resist the cold red head.

It wasn't that he was just attractive, anybody could see that. He intrigued me, everything about him. His looks, his attitude, his movements, his composure, his voice, his words, the way he could change the emotion that shone through his eyes in a moment, or show no emotion at all. I was hopeless, beyond help.

**Author's Note: Job Interview today! Wish me luck! ^.^ Here's chapter three because I'm feeling nervous and you guys always make me feel better! Love you! **

**--Hatake Hisoka.**


	4. Gaara's Tactics

**Thank you to Mana Hamasaki, Kida-of-the-Wolves, and Wordsplat for the reviews! I'm glad you guys are sticking with Kagami! She needs all the help she can get from evil Gaara :( Teehee. I hope this chapter is as good as the last??**

**Chapter 4: Gaara's Tactics**

I stumbled out of my bed, cursing myself for putting my alarm clock so far from it. Unfortunately, it was the only way I could get myself out of bed in the morning. School was sure to be hell today.

Sure enough, the moment I got there, I noticed the change in atmosphere. I shrugged the collar of my jacket up enough to cover the worst of the purpling bruise on my throat, and the other students still stared at me. I caught the slight difference between the ones who were staring at me in awe, and the ones who were staring in disgust. _The two girls that Karin had been with yesterday probably told everyone they knew what they saw._ I knew from past experience that gossip spreads quickly around high schools. The ones who watched me with some sort of amazement, or worship in their eyes would change the way they thought of me the moment they heard about what might have transpired in Gaara's car. _Is that his plan? To ruin my reputation? Like I care._

I grabbed my books from my locker and swung it shut to see Kiba, the boy with the large white dog approaching me. He must have had some severe anger management issues to be able to have a service dog in a school. _Gaara could use a service animal._ I chuckled quietly to myself at my thoughts, smiling at the handsome brown haired boy in front of me.

"Hey Kiba, how are you?" I asked him, leaning my back against my locker. I wanted to go home, and I didn't want to see Gaara's cruel smile today.

He copied my stance next to me, our shoulders touching, "Fine. I'm tired, and Akamaru is hungry already. He'll probably be whiny all through class. The teachers hate that."

I laughed, looking down at the large white dog. I crouched next to him at held out my hand. Akamaru sniffed it, and then licked my palm, tail wagging instantly. I pet him on the head and stood, smiling at Kiba's radiant expression.

"He likes you! I haven't found a girl yet that he will let pet him." The tall brunette looped an arm around my shoulders and leaned in to whisper in my ear, "We must be destined to be together if he approves."

I laughed, then noticed the voices in the hallway cease only a moment before a familiar pale hand wrapped itself around Kiba's throat.

"She's mine, mutt." The red head growled at the taller boy, his icy slivers for eyes chilling to look at. Gaara was dressed in a pair of tight black pants and a crimson shirt only a few shades darker than his hair. Memories from the back seat of his car tried to crowd my mind, but I pushed them away, noticing the odd color of Kiba's face.

"Let him go, Gaara, he can't breathe." I said, shrugging the tall boy's arm off of my shoulders and reaching out to grab the arm Gaara had extended toward the brunette.

The red head immediately released Kiba before I could touch him, and turned the smile I had already come to hate on me. I recognized the look in his eyes immediately as the darkness that had entered those light blue orbs before he had kissed me yesterday. Panic consumed my mind as I realized what he was going to do and I looked for an escape route. My back was to a row of lockers, and Gaara would catch me easily if I tried to run in either direction. I was trapped.

"Gaara--"

His name had barely left my lips before his hands encircled my wrists and he shoved me up against the lockers. I winced a little as the locks dug into my back with my arms pinned to my side and then glanced wildly at Kiba for help. He just stood there, staring, like every other person in the hallway. _What the hell was wrong with these assholes?_

Gaara looked at me for a moment, a smirk on his face, "I told you what would happen, little girl." He whispered quietly, moving his face closer and closer, ever so slowly.

My breath was already coming faster, and my body was trying to close the space between the red head and me. I forced myself to stop falling into his trap. This was exactly what he wanted, me to want him, and I would not give him that. Unfortunately, my traitorous body took over the moment Gaara touched those soft lips to mine.

I couldn't help but respond to his caress as he pressed his muscled body along the length of mine. My body didn't care that we were in a hallway full of students who were no doubt watching our performance, it just wanted Gaara, and wanted him badly. He kissed me so hard that my head was being pushed against the metal of the lockers, but it wasn't unpleasant. This was different than the slow, passionate kiss he had given me yesterday. There was an edge to this, something I couldn't quite place, but I liked it, a lot.

My tongue found its way between his lips before he could even do the same and my mind crowed with delight as I felt him gasp against my lips. We fought each other for domination in the kiss, tongues warring with each other, and he won. I gave in to the feeling of his body against mine, his hands holding my wrists so tight I knew they would be bruised, and his lips touching mine so intimately. My entire self gave up to Gaara, he had won completely.

Then he changed the kiss, drawing back so that only our lips were caressing each other. He slowed it, reminding me of how we had started the day before. I sighed into his mouth, not caring anymore that I had fallen into his trap. The way he touched his lips to mine made up for the rest of his actions towards me in this moment. I realized that I hadn't given him what he wanted yet, his name from my mouth. My lips curved into a smile against his as the thought flowed through my kiss addled brain.

"Think you're winning, little girl?" Gaara murmured against my lips, gently drawing my lower lip between his teeth.

He bit down, and got what he wanted. The red head's name flew from my lips almost desperately, and definitely too loud. I had no doubts in my mind that if they hadn't before, every single person in the hallway knew just how much I had enjoyed Gaara's attention.

The red head released my lip and put an inch of space between our faces, self satisfaction gleaming in his eyes and smile. "If you keep saying my name like that, I might be tempted to do other things to you, little girl." He taunted me in a whisper. I looked away from him, unable to stop the heat from flooding my cheeks.

He let go of my arms and stepped back from me, and I, not caring, let my limp body slide down the lockers until I sat on the floor.

"Gawd Kagami, if you wanted a good kiss, you could have come to me." Kiba, of course, couldn't keep is mouth shut the moment I was separated from Gaara. I looked up to see the murderous intent in the tattooed boy's eyes.

"Leave him alone Gaara." I sighed.

The handsome face from my dreams last night looked down at me, "Want more so soon, little girl?" He asked, the hooded look back in his eyes already.

"You already got what you wanted." I told him, glaring at him from my position on the floor, "Now fuck off."

He chuckled, bending over to thread his fingers in the hair at the nape of my neck. Gaara forced my face up, so that I looked at him straight on. He brushed his lips against mine once, then let me go, "See you later little girl." The red head walked away, oblivious, or just ignoring the stares that followed him.

Once he was out of sight, the hall burst into chatter, and more than a few glances were shot at me. Kiba kneeled next to me, and his huge white dog sat in front of me.

"What the hell is going on between you and Gaara?" He demanded.

I covered my still hot face with my hands, "He's blackmailing me." I said.

"What? How?"

I turned my head, drawing up my knees so I could rest my cheek on them and look at Kiba, "He's forcing me into a relationship with him as long as I continue to stand between him and anyone he wants to punch." I told him, even though that was far from the truth. Gaara and I had no relationship, except for maybe one of mutual physical attraction.

"What the hell Kagami! Just leave him alone then!" The brunette said loudly. Akamaru whined, sticking his nose in my hair.

I closed my eyes, "And leave Naruto to get his ass kicked? And then the next person after him? Yeah right. If I can stop that asshole from picking on other people, I don't care what I have to do."

"You really care that much about everyone else at this school to protect us from Gaara? I find that hard to believe." He brushed a hand across the deep bruise on my neck, "Or are you just interested in Gaara?"

I jerked away from Kiba, narrowing my eyes, "You're wrong about both. I don't give a fuck about anyone, except maybe Naruto and my sister. You might get on the list if you stop being an asshole." I growled at him, "I don't care about protecting students I don't know, I just hate seeing bullies getting away with beating the shit out of other kids." I dropped my head on my knees, "And Gaara is an asshole. Just because I'm attracted to him physically doesn't mean anything. He's just using it to his advantage right now."

Kiba put his arm around my shoulders again, "Would he leave you alone if you got together with someone else?" He asked me, pulling me closer to him.

I shook my head, putting a bit of distance between us, "You saw him, Kiba, he'll just go after you and the cycle will just start over. For some reason he's going to make sure everyone knows that he has a claim on me."

"I wish I was strong enough to be some sort of knight in shining armor and kick his ass for you." He said quietly, "A nice, pretty girl like you needs someone who can take care of you, not someone who is going to take advantage of you."

I smiled at him, "Thanks Kiba." I shrugged, "I'll be fine, okay? He can't take everything from me."

The bell rang and the brunette got to his feet, offering me a hand. I took it and we parted ways without saying a word. The look in his eyes said everything that did and didn't need to be said. _I'm sorry Kiba, if I was a different person this would never have happened and you would probably have a chance._ I truly felt bad, he was a nice guy.

I walked off to class, remembering a strategy I had come up with last night before drifting off the dream about a certain asshole red head. I would outline the plan with Naruto in class; hopefully he would save a seat for me.

**Author's Note: I can't find this story anywhere…is it just me? Or is it showing up in a weird place?**

**Thanks for the reads and reviews! You guys are all awesome and inspire me! ^.^**


	5. Lunch Plan

**Thank you to Yutaki, Kida-of-the-Wolves, Mana Hamasaki, and Wordsplat for your reviews last chapter! I hope that this is as good as the last!**

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**Chapter 5: Lunch Plan**

Naruto had agreed to the plan, and we had stuck near each other in between classes. I thought that it was going to get messy outside of my Honors Japanese class that I had with Gaara, but the red head was already in the classroom when I parted ways with my blond friend. That had made me breathe a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, there were few seats left, and most of them were near Gaara. I looked to a girl sitting next to an empty desk that was on the opposite side of the room from him, but got a dirty look. Obviously she was in on the gossip about us, and I took her look for a no. So I sat next to Gaara, not wanting to take the seat in front of him. He smirked at me, icy eyes watching me as I sat down. It was a bit unnerving.

I turned my eyes to the older man with the long white ponytail teaching our class, and proceeded to ignore the red head next to me for the rest of the period, even though I could feel his icy glare every time he turned it my way.

I met up with Naruto after class and we walked to lunch together while I kept an eye out for Gaara. It was getting annoying walking around and having to scout for him everywhere. I wanted that asshole to stop bothering me.

We sat down, and Kiba took a chair next to me, and almost immediately he nudged me urgently, "Kagami, he's coming over here."

My eyes narrowed on the red head making his way towards our table, that nasty twisted smile on his face, accompanied by the usual cold look in his eyes.

"Naruto?" I said when Gaara was only two tables away from us.

"Yeah?" He said around a mouthful of food.

"Remember the plan?" I asked him, my eyes tracking the red head's movements, he was close now.

"Mhmm."

"Run." I whispered, jumping out of my seat.

We both sprinted between the tables, drawing the eyes of everyone in the cafeteria as we made our way to the doors. I waved to Naruto, a bitter smile on my lips as we turned the opposite ways down the hallway. I had kept Gaara from getting what he wanted again, so I was counting on him following me, which I had no doubt that he would. I heard the footsteps begin to follow me already.

I ran as fast as I could, having already scouted out a place where I could possibly hide if I could lose Gaara for long enough. I glanced behind me and saw the red head beginning to catch up. Fortunately, I had reached the doors and was outside, where I could run around the other buildings spread across campus. I made as many turns around different buildings as I could until I came to the place where I could wedge myself in the corner between two buildings. It was perfect, because it was in shadow, and with my generally dark clothing, I was nearly invisible. All I had to do now was get my breathing to slow so I could be quiet.

I closed my eyes, drawing my knees up so I could wrap my arms around my legs. _Why the hell am I running? I should just fight him and get it over with, and then maybe he'll be satisfied._ My breath was still coming in short gasps, and suddenly I head the sound of shoes in the grass. I held my breath, and my heart pounded. _He's going to find me._ I closed my eyes and rested my forehead on my knees, playing the old 'if I can't see them, they can't see me' trick that never ceased to make me feel better, that is, until they found me.

_Swish, swish, crunch._ The footsteps stopped right in front of me, and I could already feel his body heat he was so close.

"Why did you run, little girl?" That cold voice reached my ears almost painfully, and I just wanted this to stop. How the hell was I supposed to concentrate on school with all this fucking drama? It was only the second day and I was being bullied. _Bullied. Ha. More like seduced._

"Leave me alone." I mumbled into my jeans, feeling defeated. Was every day going to be like this? Or would he get bored of teasing me like this? I really hoped the latter. I wasn't going to survive the school year with my mind intact if Gaara kept playing with my hormones like this.

"Are you tired of this game already?" His hand fisted in my hair and he jerked my head up. I stared at him defiantly. I was not giving in to this without a fight; he wasn't catching me off guard this time.

Gaara's soft lips curled into a smile that was menacing, "I'm not tired of it." He said in a quiet voice that told me I was in danger.

I grabbed for his arm and he pulled back on my hair, making me miss. I ignored the pain of him pulling on my short brown locks and locked my hands around his wrist. With a hard glare from his icy eyes, he yanked me to my feet and used his free hand to pry my fingers from his arm easily. _Why the hell is he so strong?_ Most bullies were strong, but I could usually use the advantage of my small size and speed to deal with them. Gaara was the same height as me, and was faster. I had definitely met my match in this red haired demon.

Struggling against his hold, I kicked out at him violently, and he responded by swiping my legs out from underneath me. Gaara kept his hold on my hair, dropping with knees on either side of me. I tried to hit him with my fists, but I was deflected each time by one free arm. He abruptly released my hair and grabbed both of my arms, grinning fiercely at me. I momentarily wondered if anyone was watching our fight, then winced as I was pushed onto my back. Was I already giving up? This would not do.

Gaara's face neared mine and I raised my head abruptly, trying to smash my forehead into his, but of course, he moved out of the way. _Was I ever going to be able to hit this guy?_

He narrowed his eyes at me, "You can't win."

I rolled my eyes; I was getting tired of his stupid lines. "Fuck off." I said in a low voice, putting all of my strength into getting him off of me.

Gaara just let all of his weight pin me to the ground, and held both of my wrists in one of his big hands. The other went to my hair and just like that, my whole body was under control. _This is getting really old._ And it had only been a day and a half. His light eyes darkened as he looked down at me, his lips curved into that cruel smile, and when his lips touched mine, it was the same as before. I was lost.

We walked into Chemistry together; the red head in front of me, arms crossed over his chest, and the whole class watched us. I ignored it, like I had all the stares in the hallway and followed Gaara to our table. I was most curious about the look that Mr. Guy was sending our way; his usually wide eyes were filled with suspicion. I smiled at him as I sat down, scooting my chair as far away from the boy next to me as possible. I heard a quiet chuckle come from his direction.

I fled from class much like the day before and accompanied Naruto to his next period.

"Are you okay?" He asked me, worry pinching his blue eyes.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I said on a sigh.

Naruto grabbed my arm, "You don't have to do this for me." He told me, gaze intent.

I smiled ever so slightly, "I'm not doing it just for you. Gaara needs to learn a lesson, and I'm still coming up with a way to teach it to him."

That was a lie. I didn't think there was anything I could teach that rotten bastard. Maybe my parents wouldn't like it here and we'd move. I doubted that though. I was stuck here. _What if you did find a way to get rid of him?_ I thought on the words I had said to Naruto through my last class, and the rest of the day. _No one is ever beyond hope._ Here I was, thinking of a way to reform the biggest asshole on the planet. I laughed at myself as I lay in bed that night.

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**Author's Note: Will someone please tell me if this is showing up in the Naruto fanfiction archive? I can't find it each time I post a new chapter! T.T I am very sad. I always like to make sure my fics are in the right places, and I have double checked this fic a billion times to make sure all the labels are correct and I still don't see it in the archive. Please help me! **

**o.O BTW, I am very busy right now, so the next update might not be very soon, or after chapter six, chapter seven will take a while. The fall quarter is ending at college, so I have lots of stuff to write. ^.^ Thank you for reading!**


	6. Suspicious Actions

**Thanks to Mana Hamasaki, TJD41066, Yutaki, and Kida-of-the-Wolves for the reviews! I'm so glad everyone still likes it even though Gaara is a total jerkface! . Love you guys! Here's the next chapter for you!!!!**

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**Chapter 6: Suspicious Actions**

Wednesday and Thursday went much like the first two days of school. On Wednesday, the red head picked on some boy I didn't know, and on Thursday, he went after Naruto again who was still sporting a bruised eye from Monday.

Friday was different. I knew the moment I walked towards the school building with my sister at my side that morning.

"Is that him?" Karin poked me, nodding towards the red head leaning against the brick wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Yeah." I said slowly, seeing the odd expression on Gaara's face as we got closer. By odd, I meant that it was an expression I had never seen on his face before, or even had thought to see. He was smiling, staring at me, but it wasn't that cruel twist of lips I was so used to. No, it was a lot more attractive, and looked like he had a secret.

Gaara had a sexy smile on his face. That, combined with the usually tight jeans and equally form hugging shirt was enough to make my brain run off on me. I shook my head mentally, trying to defend myself from whatever was going on.

Karin tugged on me arm, her eyes glued to the provocative figure in front of us, "He's hot!" She whispered into my ear.

I nodded, shrugging off her grip. I noticed Gaara's gaze momentarily slide to my sister before locking back on me. His eyes held some sort of amusement and I frowned, going to him. Karin stood a little ways away; I could feel her interested eyes on my back.

"What the hell do you want?" I demanded, knowing the only reason he wore that smile was to get something from me. What other reason could he have?

He pushed off the wall, unfolding his arms as he closed the foot of space I had left between us. Without saying anything, just wearing that lovely smile, the red head's hand moved to the back of my head. I braced myself for his usual painful grip on my hair, but it never came. I opened my eyes not even realizing that I had shut them against the mind melting kiss I had expected to follow quickly after him touching me. Gaara's ice blue eyes were unreadable, but that absolutely heart stopping smile was still there. I wanted to know what he was thinking. _Don't I always? Nah, probably not. His head is probably full off different ways he could break every bone in my body, seeing that would scar me for life._

He wrapped his other arm around my waist, pulling us close together and breaking my chain of thoughts. My hands stayed limply at my sides. I was frozen with a mixture of suspicion and shock. Was he being _gentle_ with me?

Gaara's lips touched mine softly. He kissed me slowly this time, nothing like the rushed or desperate ones we had shared in our short time of knowing each other. It was almost chaste, except for the undercurrent of passion that kept it from being innocent. Nothing about Gaara was innocent.

He drew back too soon, and I opened my eyes to see satisfaction glowing in his light blue ones. "That's what I wanted." He told me as his hand trailed down the back of my head to my neck, then dropped to his side. His arm left my waist and he left me with only the image of his new smile imprinted on my mind as he walked away.

"Gaara." I whispered, unable to do anything except follow his figure with my eyes until he disappeared into the building.

"Woah." Kiba's overpowering presence shook that inability to move from me and I turned to him with a smile on my face.

_A smile? How long has it been since I smiled? Since I met Gaara?_

"Was Gaara actually being _nice_ to you?" He asked me, an incredulous note to his voice.

"Kagami!" Karin's voice rang in my ear as she flounced up to my side. I noticed the glance she darted in Kiba's direction was a little coy as she turned to me and said, "He was perfectly nice to you!" Her tone suggested that she had expected otherwise, which considering what she had probably heard around school, she should have.

Kiba snorted at my younger sibling, looking at her with disdain, "Yeah, and knowing Gaara, he's planning something even worse for her later."

Karin looked him up and down, frowning. She probably didn't understand why he wasn't slobbering at her feet like Akamaru was doing at mine. "Whatever." She said snobbily, turning to me, "I'm going to meet up with some friends, bye!"

I reached down to pet Akamaru as Kiba spoke, "What the hell was her problem?"

I shrugged, smiling at his ignorance.

He leaned into me, shoving me lazily with his shoulder, "Let's go find Naruto before Mr. Nice Guy tries to kick his face in."

"Sure." I grinned as Kiba looped his arm through mine, dragging both me and his giant white dog into school, wondering if I was happy because Gaara had been nice to me for once, or because maybe I felt hope that he might leave me alone. My mind refused to believe the first, but the lingering feeling of that gentle kiss on my lips supported it.

We found Naruto unharmed except for his single bruised eye near his locker. "Kagami!" He exclaimed loudly, scooping me into a hug that tore me away from Kiba, "He didn't even look at me when he walked by!"

The 'he' was undoubtedly a certain red head, "That's good." I said, and I couldn't stop myself from smiling at Naruto's jubilant expression.

"Maybe things will go back to normal. Huh?" Kiba suggested, leaning against Naruto's locker as the blond boy was trying to get into it.

"Get out of the way Kiba!" Naruto yelled.

I narrowed my eyes at the brunette, "What do you mean by normal?"

He moved away from Naruto's locker, rolling his dark eyes, "You think he picked on someone every day before you came around? Yeah right. We only had to watch out every week or so."

I thought about that, and my mind stuttered over the implications of that knowledge, "Are you saying that I've set Gaara off?"

Kiba glowered, "He probably doesn't know any other way to get your attention. Not to mention you're the first person who has ever stood up to him that he hasn't kicked the shit out of."

Naruto suddenly jumped into the conversation, "Are you jealous that Gaara gets to kiss Kagami and you don't, Kiba?" He asked in his loud voice, blue eyes sparkling as he obviously tried to antagonize the brunette.

Kiba exploded, "Shut up you bastard!" He pushed Naruto back into the metal lockers, and then looked at me with spots of red in his cheeks, "Sorry." His face smoothed back out into his usual cool demeanor and he wrapped his arms around my shoulders in a hug, "You should totally dump the prick and go out with me, Tara."

"We're not dating." I muttered, heat rising in my face at the amount of attention we were drawing. Kiba would be lucky if Gaara didn't hear about this and show up to cut off his air supply again.

"I'm taking Naruto to class." An empty voice said from behind me, interrupting the conversation. I turned to see the raven haired boy that I had kicked on the first day of school. His name was Sasuke, if I remembered correctly.

My right eyebrow went up, "Oh, you are?" I asked, facing him completely, "Decided that since you're a _man_ that you can stand up to big, scary Gaara?" The jibe was completely childish, but I was so pissed off at all the dumb people in this school that were so afraid of the red headed asshole.

Sasuke stared at me, "I am not afraid of Sabaku."

An unattractive snort escaped me, "Then where have you been? Why the sudden interest in protecting Naruto?"

"I've been sick." He told me in a tone that stated clearly that it was none of my business.

"He has been." Naruto mumbled from behind me.

I ignored the blond, "What about Monday?" I asked him, "You were here."

"I went home early." Was the onyx eyed boy's response.

I pointed at the boy devoid of personality as I looked back at Naruto, "Is he your friend?"

Naruto nodded, and I thought for a moment that there was some red in his cheeks, probably from the yelling he had been doing at Kiba. Strange, I hadn't seen any evidence of that friendship, although the blond had seemed comfortable berating Sasuke when I first met the two of them.

"I'll be better protection for him anyways."

That made me turn back to Sasuke and narrow my eyes, "Mhmm. I suppose we all know how that will go." I said sarcastically.

His onyx eyes narrowed also, "At least I won't have to fuck Sabaku to keep him away from Naruto."

That was _it_. My fist connected with his arm that went up in a block and then he was shoved away from me. Gaara stood in the place that Sasuke had just occupied, facing the dark haired boy.

"She's mine, Uchiha." Gaara said in a low, quiet voice, all icy glare and hard tone.

"Like I want your slut, Sabaku." He snarled, hands clenching into fists.

"I am not a slut, you bastard!" I told Sasuke loudly, taking a step toward him.

Gaara's hand wrapped around my upper arm and I glanced at him angrily. _He_ was going to keep _me_ from fighting?!

A smirk curved the raven's lips, "Anyone who would fuck that guy is a slut."

I pulled against Gaara's hold, "I'm not sleeping with him!" Just implying that would have pissed me off, but the asshole had actually said it! I wanted nothing more than to rip that smirk off his face.

"Enough, Sasuke." A bored voice said, just loud enough for us to hear. I looked at my silver haired Government teacher who was looking up with his single visible eye from the orange book in his hands. I wondered how long he had been watching, long enough, at least, to discern that the black haired boy was at fault.

With a glare at Mr. Hatake, Sasuke grabbed Naruto's arm, dragging the blond boy as he talked off. Our teacher walked away with his face in his book, without saying anything else.

Gaara turned to me, ignoring Kiba, who was staring at the retreating forms of Sasuke and Naruto.

The red head's eyes flicked up and down my body, "He didn't hit you?" There was slight inflection in his cold voice; enough that I knew it was a question and not a statement.

My eyes narrowed, "Were you defending me?" It sounded accusatory, so what if it was?

"No one touches what is mine." He told me coldly, turquoise eyes as hard as his voice.

I leaned into him, "He didn't touch me, I hit him."

The bell for class rang and Gaara gripped me tighter when I tried to pull away. He stared at me for a moment and then dropped my arm, walking away.

I turned to see Kiba still standing next to Naruto's locker; I looked at him with an unspoken question in my eyes.

He shuddered, and Akamaru shoved his head under my left hand, "I was afraid to leave you along with him, the way he looks at you is creepy." The brunette said, looping his arm though mine, "I'll walk you to class."

Chemistry arrived all too soon, but fortunately without Gaara threatening anyone. I was still very suspicious; he was not acting like himself today. He was being way too _nice_ to me.

He even helped in the lab we were doing, although he distracted me by the first thing he said off the topic of mixing chemicals, "You're coming home with me today." He said quietly, only for me to hear.

I stared at him, holding the beaker in my hand tightly, "What?"

"You are coming home with me today." There was a smirk accompanying the mocking look in his ice blue eyes.

"I'm not going anywhere with you." I told him angrily, turning back to our station.

The red head leaned back against the counter, "I guess I could just ask your sister." My head snapped up as he spoke, "She'd come home with me in a heartbeat."

I spun to face him, "You leave Karin _alone_." My voice came out in a harsh whisper.

He shrugged, "I'd rather have you, but I'll settle for her."

I felt my fists clench without any conscious thought, and then closed my eyes in defeat. I wasn't risking my sister just because I didn't want to be around Gaara outside of school. "I'll go to your house."

The smirk was broader when I opened my eyes, "Then you can ride with me after school."

I shook my head, "I have to bring my sister home from school."

"Whatever. Get clothes, you're staying the night." He told me, switching his attention to the chemicals on the counter.

I stared at the side of his red head, "Yeah right, like my parents would let me stay the night at a boy's house."

"Tell them you're staying at your friend Temari's, she's my sister." He said as he wrote something on a piece of paper, "Here." He handed it to me and I saw that there was an address written on it. "I'm giving you an hour after school gets out to get there."

I raised an eyebrow; I couldn't help but ask, "What will happen if I don't show up?" It wasn't as if he could track me down, he didn't know where I lived.

For the first time today, the cruel twist of lips that I dreaded most made its home on Gaara's otherwise handsome face, "That will be a surprise. One that you won't like, for sure." He said, the tone of his voice telling me those words were a promise.

I looked at the address, glad the street was semi familiar. _He lives really close to me._ I hid the wince that came unbidden at the thought; _I am never telling him where I live._

Gaara actually helped me and we got the lab completed before the end of class. We didn't mention our earlier conversation at all, but he smiled secretively, much like this morning, as we left class and parted ways. _Dammit._ My heart was racing; _he needs to stop looking at me like that._

So, the reason why the red head was being nice was because of the evil plan he had for tonight. _This situation is getting better and better, _I thought sarcastically to myself during my last class.

"I'm staying the night at my friend Temari's house tonight." I told my mom on my way up the stairs to my bedroom. I heard her affirmative grunt and closed my door. She didn't care, as long as I had friends.

I threw some pajamas and a change of clothes into a small overnight bag along with my toiletries. Packing my bag took all of five minutes and then I sat down heavily on my bed.

_Why the hell is he doing this?_

Kiba's bitter words came back to me, _"He probably doesn't know any other way to get your attention."_

I rolled my eyes to no one, grabbing the bag. I was probably just the only girl to ever stand up to him, so he was picking on me. Like a child with a new toy, he would get bored of me eventually, and I would be free of the unpleasant red head. The only question that bounced around in my mind was asking me if my sanity could survive his attentions. A part of me was telling myself that this was going to damage my ability to be in a healthy relationship. Not that Gaara and I were in a relationship whatsoever. Definitely not.

Karin watched me as I left the house, and I wondered if it even occurred to her what was going on. I had never met Temari, I didn't even know if she went to our school. For all I knew, she was his six year old sister.

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**Author's Note: That was long wasn't it? . All these chapters are pretty long aren't they…..Well, I like reading fanfics with longer chapters, and I write a lot, so I guess the rest of the story will be like this too.. I hope its not annoying anyone. ^.^ I am very excited to see what happens next…**


	7. Family Dinner

**Thank you to Snowy-ninja, Yutaki, narutowolf, darkness engulfs me, shootingcomet33, Kida-of-the-Wolves, TBadillo90, and Wordsplat for your reviews! Wooh, that was a lot of names to write. You guys are awesome! Here's the next chapter. The draft of eight has been started and my classes end tomorrow, so updates will hopefully come quicker ^.^**

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**Chapter 7: Sabaku Family Dinner**

I found that Gaara's sister, Temari, was not six years old when she answered the door.

"Oh!" She exclaimed as she saw me on her doorstep, I noticed the way her eyes looked me up and down judgmentally, but the smile that she gave me after the once-over didn't seem hostile, "You must be the person Gaara is expecting, unless Kankuro invited you over?"

The girl had sandy blond hair tied back in four short ponytails, thin black eyeliner on, and a simple form fitting pink top with tight blue jeans. She looked a little older than me, so I wondered if she was out of high school.

I nodded, "Gaara's friend, I'm Kagami." I went for neutrality, just because I wasn't sure if Gaara had said anything about me to his family, and I didn't want to say girlfriend. I was not his girlfriend.

She opened the door wide, motioning for me to come in, "I'm Temari, Gaara's older sister." She told me as I walked slowly into the house.

The door was right off the living room and I paused at the sight I saw. Kankuro, a boy I recognized from my chemistry class was sprawled out on the couch. He looked like an older, taller, brown haired version of Gaara. Although his nose was a touch wider, and he lacked the thick black eyeliner the red head never was without, there was striking resemblance between the two. My eyes went to the boy who was leaning against another sofa, his head lolled back, fast asleep. His thick black hair was tied up on top of his head in a ponytail, and I looked from him to Temari, the boy did not looked like he belonged in this family.

A small smile crossed her face, "That's Kankuro, my younger brother, and Shikamaru, my boyfriend."

I looked back at the sleeping boy against the couch, _how can that be comfortable?_

Kankuro twisted his head away from the television screen to look at me, "Hey, Kagami. I thought you were the person Gaara was expecting." He said to me. It was the first time I had ever heard him speak.

I smiled weakly at him, unable to make it bright at the thought of the nasty red head. Where was he?

The brown haired boy frowned, "Did he force you to come here?" He asked me.

Before I could answer, said red head walked into the room, his light blue eyes immediately latching on to me. He smiled, that sexy smile, and my heart sped, betraying my mind that didn't want him to come any closer. I stood, frozen as Gaara approached me from across the living area.

"I see you made it." He glanced at a clock on the wall, "Quite quickly too." The smile widened as he stopped in front of me, "Wanted to see me that badly?" He asked in a low voice.

His hand wrapped around the nape of my neck and he pressed his lips to mine briefly, before drawing back and grabbing the overnight bag from my hands, a smug smile now in place. "Follow me." Gaara ordered.

"Where are you're parents? At work?" I asked, peering into the kitchen and dining room as we walked past them to the stairs that led upwards.

Gaara chuckled, "We don't live with our parents." He told me, mounting the stairs without facing me as he spoke.

My mind balked a little at his revelation. _No parents? He can do whatever the hell he wants to me while I'm here! I though I would be marginally safe if his parents were around! _I followed him up to the room he led me into.

He dropped my bag on the queen sized, unmade bed that occupied the far wall of the sizeable bedroom. _This is his room._ I saw the generally dark scheme of the bed spread, male clothing laying on the floor, and the masculine touch to the room. There wasn't much besides his bed, dresser, closet, bedside table, and one half empty bookshelf. What caught my eye, though, were the black drawings on his emerald green walls.

I stepped further into the room to study some of the thick black lines that decorated the room. There was a drawing of a stitched up teddy bear with black button eyes, a very detailed sketch of a large crowd of people dancing that took up a quarter of the wall across from the door, his tattoo enlarged above the bed, and various other random pictures. It was all black on green, and it had a very startling effect on my eyes. I turned to Gaara, who was watching me with those ice blue eyes.

"I didn't know you were an artist." I said dumbly.

He smirked, "You don't know a lot about me."

I rolled my eyes, sitting down on the bed next to my bag, "Now what?"

Gaara moved toward me, and then pushed me roughly onto my back, "Well, I don't have plans until later, so this will do for now."

His lips found mine and his body covered my body, pressing me into the soft mattress. He pinned my wrists with his hands, restricting my movement like usual. The difference, though, was that I was very aware of how close our bodies were, almost smashed up against each other. His chest pressed down on my breasts and his groin was nestled into mine. I could hardly even concentrate on his lips, just for the simple fact that I had never had a male body pressed so intimately against me. The heat in my stomach was overwhelming. I wanted to cry at the sensation of feeling his body on mine, it was so intense. There were no words to describe what I was feeling. I could fight Gaara at every turn, refuse to acknowledge anything between us, hate him, run from him, but once he caught me and used the connection in the chemicals in our bodies to his advantage, I could do nothing except surrender. It made some part of me hate him more and another part crave him more.

A knock sounded at the door, and Gaara made a frustrated noise low in his throat. He lifted his head from mine to say, "Go away!" and attacked my lips once more.

I gasped into his mouth at the suddenness of him kissing me again and his tongue slid in effortlessly, coating the inside of my mouth with his sweet taste.

"I need to know if you guys are eating dinner here!" Temari's voice came through the door loudly.

He tore his mouth from mine, saying 'yes' in an exasperated tone.

"Okay, thanks." The sound of her footsteps slowly retreated.

Gaara looked down at me, his blue eyes roaming over my face, as if he was trying to memorize it. The intensity of his gaze caused a blush to rise, heating my cheeks, "Stop staring at me." I whined quietly, uncomfortable under his silent eyes.

He smiled, closing the space between our faces, until I was almost going cross eyed trying to keep eye contact, "But I like looking at you." The rasp in his voice sped my pulse, my heart once again beating against my ribcage like a bird wanting its freedom, except I didn't know how to free it.

Those words were probably the only nice thing he had said to me. "You…like…looking at me?" I asked slowly, trying to speak around the pounding in my throat.

"Why wouldn't I? You're an attractive little girl." Gaara chuckled, and then captured my lips with his again, taking me far away from a place where I could rationally think about why he was actually treating me nicely.

Somehow, we ended up all the way on the bed and under the covers that were saturated with his warm, spicy male scent. We both lay on our sides, facing each other, one of his hands holding both my wrists so my arms were behind my back. I wanted to touch him so badly, but for some reason I wasn't allowed to. The red head lay a soft kiss on my lips, and then trailed his lips down my jaw line to my throat, where he played hell with my sensitivity, making me gasp for breath and cry out. His lips traveled lower, and I could see the top of his red head now, the softness of his crimson locks brushing against my lips as he kissed my collarbone.

"Gaara--" I gasped out in a choked voice, a little fear now speeding my heart as his lips moved even lower. The part of my mind that was still barely functioning was cursing my decision this morning to wear a low cut shirt that showed a slight bit of cleavage, because that was where Gaara was headed right now.

I couldn't stop him and the kiss he laid on the very upper part of my breast made me sigh, the fear leaving. His head came up at the sound escaping from my lips, and his heavy lidded eyes looked down at me. _He is really sexy when he's like this._ My thoughts were even betraying me! I closed my eyes, unable to look at him when he was tempting me so much.

"Open your eyes, little girl." His voice held the edge of a taunt to it, and I hesitantly obeyed, staring up at him helplessly. I was under his spell.

"Want to watch television?"

I blinked at him stupidly for a moment, then the change in topic registered in my mind and I nodded slowly, unsure if I could speak looking into those hooded eyes. He looked as if he wasn't finished with me, but he was offering to do something else; anything else that would keep me from becoming addicted to him. Every time he touched me, kissed me, took control of me, I was becoming more and more lost in him. _Please don't let this be permanent._ I was beginning to not abhor his attentions so much. If he was going to keep being nice to me, or semi nice, as he had started doing today, I was even more screwed than before. I wondered just exactly the red head had planned. Not just for tonight, but this whole game he was playing with me. Fear crept into me slowly; fear that my emotions would begin to become involved. _He's not going to keep being nice to you, so that won't be a problem._

The red head slowly moved away from me, and pulled me up into a sitting position next to him. I saw that he had a TV on the wall at the foot of the bed. We were going to watch television in the comfort and warmth of the furniture he slept on every night. He grabbed a remote from a desk that hosted a lamp next to his bedside and turned the TV on, pulling me into his lap quickly.

"What the hell?" I turned to glare at him, and he just smirked, and motioned toward the TV with the remote in his hand.

"What do you want to watch?" He asked me, smirk still in place and his free hand wrapped around my waist and held my wrists together in front of my stomach.

I squirmed a little, slightly uncomfortable as I faced the TV and answered, "I don't care."

He chuckled, shifting me in his lap and pulling me tighter against him, the red head was warm for being such a cold bastard. I leaned back into him, grumpily, as he went to the guide channel and surfed through the selections. He settled on a rerun episode of House, and I promptly prepared to fall asleep. I could not stay awake through a whole episode; it was usually too complicated for me to figure out and I didn't know the characters very well. I was missing my after school nap anyways; I'd catch it during the show.

I felt Gaara's lips brush against my neck, "Gaara, I thought we were going to watch TV." I said with a slight whine, not really wanting him kissing my neck while he was watching a show where they were about to do invasive surgery on someone.

He chuckled against my skin and the vibrations that ran down my neck made me shiver, "I have no interest in the television. I just wanted you in my lap." He told me, his voice low, with that hint of darkness.

"You didn't have to turn on the TV to get me in your lap." I grumbled, trying to escape from his grasp.

The red head's grip on me tightened, cutting off the movement in my upper body. I tried to use my legs to scoot off of his lap, and he made a quiet noise in his throat that froze me. Another chuckle escaped him, "Moving around like that isn't going to get you free. It's just going to make me want to trap you more."

"Gaara!" I blushed at the implication behind his words, very carefully not moving in his lap as I leaned back against him again.

He nuzzled my neck with his lips and dropped the remote on the bedspread, wrapping his arm around my waist to drag me tightly up against him. A small sound escaped me as he touched his tongue to my skin, but another wave of heat rose in my cheeks as I realized just exactly where my butt was nestled. This was a little too intimate for my tastes.

I craned my neck around so he couldn't reach it and I could see the red head's face, "Can I please just sit next to you?"

Those ice colored eyes had that hooded look to them, and that sexy smile curved his lips, making my insides feel like jelly. "You're cheating." I muttered half heartedly as he pressed his red lips to mine, "I'm tired." The last barely came out in a mumble.

My brain was starting to get a little bit foggy. I wasn't lying about my afternoon nap. I usually stayed up until two or three in the morning, and made up for it in the afternoon with one or two hour nap.

His tongue slid inside my mouth and I couldn't resist him, the stupor of sleep was ruining my reaction time. The kiss was gentle and soft, completely unfamiliar to me. I twisted in his lap as far as his hands restricting mine would allow and leaned into the kiss, returning the gentleness of it eagerly. The fog wasn't oppressing me now, so I could enjoy the pleasant moment.

Gaara drew back slowly, and I couldn't force my eyes open to look at him, "You're tired, little girl." He let me go and got off the bed, "Go to sleep. I'll wake you when dinner is ready." My mind tried to tell me that his words were gentle, but my put off nap was closing in quickly. I felt blankets being pulled over me and then I was lost to darkness.

"Get up little girl." The warmth surrounding me was suddenly absent, and my eyes shot open, then narrowed to a glare as the red head standing by the bedside, blankets in hand.

"Gimme." I reached out to grab the covers, and he moved them out of my range, smirking. I growled, shivering in the absence of heat.

"It's dinner time. Temari made pasta." He told me, dropping the blankets on the floor. Gaara grabbed my hand and pulled me roughly from his bed.

I stumbled against him, barely able to keep my feet under me as I was suddenly yanked to my feet. "Asshole." I muttered, not looking into his eyes.

The red head's lips met mine briefly, and then he ran his hand over my hair, "Come." He then proceeded to drag me downstairs to the table in the dining room.

I was having a hard time concentrating, and simply laid my head down on the table once Gaara shoved me in a chair to keep it from spinning.

"You sleep a lot too, huh?" A male voice I didn't recognize reached my ears.

I looked up to see Temari's boyfriend, Shikamaru looking at me, he was awake, and not drooling.

"Just napping." I mumbled, my eyes still trying to close on me. There hadn't been enough time between Gaara waking me up and dragging me into the dining room.

Temari came to the table with the last of the dishes and Kankuro sat down. Gaara finally took a seat next to me, moving from where he had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

Dinner was quite quiet, but I had a question that I had to have answered, and I didn't want to ask Gaara. Even though I wouldn't admit it was because I was still afraid of him, even with all the nice business he was pulling.

I looked at the sandy haired girl sitting at the head of the table to my left, "So why don't you guys live with your parents?"

The sound of silverware hitting ceramic plates ceased immediately and I watched everyone's eyes move to Gaara. I looked at him in turn, also. Obviously I was going to have to get my answer from him anyways.

His light eyes hardened as mine met them, and his answer came out in an equally stiff voice, "We don't feel like it."

The cryptic answer did not answer my question in any way, but I was not going to press him, not with that look in his eyes. It was when he looked at me like that that I was most scared of the red head. Needless to say, dinner passed quite quietly after that. Even when I tried to make eye contact with any of the other three at the table, they all avoided it, even the lazy one, Shikamaru. I sighed, turning my attention back to my food. So Gaara had a little secret he didn't want me to know. Somehow I felt that it was something important.

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**Author's Notes: The next chapter is very fun to write, I hope that this was wasn't too anticlimactic, need some plot lines in here and there so there's actually a story…^.^**


	8. Night Out

**Time to thank all of my lovely reviewers! Thank you to shootingcomet33, Mana Hamasaki, Wordsplat, and darkness engulfs me. You guys have been so faithful. (and every time I type Wordsplat's name, it always comes out Wordspalt the first time…lol) **

**Sorry for the so long update, this chapter is a bit of a long one…I guess they all have been…damn. And I have been busy with novel writing too, so please bear with me!**

**Without further stalling…….**

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**Chapter 8: A Night Out With Gaara**

In his room after dinner, Gaara looked me up and down and then frowned, "We'll have to get you something short sleeved to wear tonight." He told me, motioning back towards the door.

"Uh, no, I'll be fine like this." I said quickly, pulling on the ends of my sleeves self consciously.

His eyes turned to icicles as he looked at me over his shoulder, "You need something short sleeved."

I frowned, "Why?" He obviously had something planned, and now I wanted to know what it was, even though if I didn't like the sound of it, I probably didn't have much of a chance of backing out.

The sexy curve to his lips reappeared as he looked at me, "We're going clubbing. You'll get way too warm in long sleeves."

I stared at the red head for a moment, confusion running through me, "I'm not old enough to get in, and I don't have a fake ID, Gaara." I told him slowly.

A mocking smile erased the previous one, "We have underage, sixteen to twenty one year old clubs here." He said, grabbing my right arm, "Come on."

"Temari!" He yelled once we were out in the hallway. My mouth dropped open a little, it was the first time I had ever heard him speak much above a normal tone.

"What?" Her answer came from downstairs.

"I'm going to borrow one of your tops for my girl here." He said loudly as I silently fumed at the way he was talking about me. The possessive way he said it was insulting, like he didn't even think of me as a person.

Temari didn't answer him, but he dragged me down the hallway to her bedroom, or what I assumed was her bedroom, because all the clothes in the closet that Gaara began to paw through were girl's clothing.

He turned around and shoved a blue tank top with black stitching decorating it at me, "Wear that." The red head told me in a commanding tone.

I didn't want to wear something with short sleeves. I didn't need his judgment, of all people.

"Now." He looked impatient as I took the garment slowly.

"Where's the bathroom?" I asked, wandering towards the door to the hallway.

"Just put it on."

I shot a glare at him, "I will not change in front of you. I don't need the further humiliation." I left the room, then went down the hallway, opening doors. I found the bathroom fairly quickly, after opening the door to Kankuro's (thankfully unoccupied) room.

The top looked good on me, I admitted silently to myself as I looked in the mirror. It enhanced my otherwise grey eyes so that they were almost the same bright color as the shirt. I was glad that Temari was about the same size as me because it fit me well. The only thing that ruined the effect was the gauze wrapped around my left forearm. _Maybe he won't ask about it._

Gaara was standing outside the bathroom when I came out. I watched his light blue eyes roam over me and I stiffened when they settled on the bandages. He touched them and looked up at me with narrowed eyes.

"What happened?" His voice was laden with suspicion.

I shrugged, trying to be nonchalant, "It's a deep cut that I don't want to get infected."

His eyes honed in on the bandages and he stepped closer to me, "Let me see it." The red head demanded.

"No." I said hurriedly, thinking of something to say quickly, "It's hard to get the gauze wrapped right and I didn't bring any extra." Lie, lie.

Gaara smiled at me, taking another step closer. I backed away from him; mentally cursing as my back hit the closed bathroom door.

We have extra." His voice was silky as he spoke and pressed his body along mine, trapping me.

"No." The word was weak as it leaked out. With the red head so close to me that I could see every detail of his red ink tattoo, my ability to form coherent thoughts began to fade fast. He was no doubt using that to his advantage. _I was too obvious about not wanting him to see. Now he's even more suspicious._

I closed my eyes against his face so close to mine and braced for what I knew was going to come. His hands closed around my wrists, ever careful to keep me completely captive. My heartbeat was already fighting against my rib cage, and my lips were parted involuntarily. I hated that I wanted him. He was too alluring, too intoxicating, even when he wasn't trying to seduce me into giving him what he wanted, there was a certain pull that I felt towards him. Maybe it was the promise of something else, a promise that he would no doubt keep.

The red head's lips found mine and my entire focus narrowed down to that one point on my body, "Gaara." I whispered against his mouth, feeling the slight smile on his lips. My body moved of its own volition to be more completely smashed up against his. A low noise came from his throat and he pushed me harder against the door. He slid his tongue between my lips, finally making me forget why he was doing this in the first place. I kissed him back almost desperately, unsure of why I felt this way. This was different; this was more than just the sensations running through my body. Something akin to emotion poured from me into the devious red head through our connected lips. Why did I feel like this?

Gaara broke the kiss off abruptly, and I opened my eyes to see a fiercely triumphant grin on his red lips. I felt the sting of air on my wound as he put a few inches of space between us. His eyes darted down and I winced as the smile was completely erased from his face. Icy eyes looked back up at me, a little wider than I had seen them before.

"Why the hell did you to that to yourself?" Gaara said angrily, the rage creeping into his eyes. I did not want him angry while he was this close to me.

I looked down at my arm, the deep red wound glaring back at me. It was messy; each letter of LOVE was connected jaggedly by the slashed line through the word in my flesh. There was a little blood beginning to well up where the gauze had stuck. Said bandages were now on the ground where Gaara had deposited them after craftily distracting me in order to get them off.

He didn't wait for my answer, "Don't other people hurt you enough?"

I dragged my eyes up to his heat filled ones slowly. _No one hurt me until you came along._ I froze, letting that thought rerun itself through my mind so I could dissect it. _Is that true? Am I feeling hurt by what Gaara is doing to me?_

At my silence, he looked back down at my arm and then he lifted it, his hand around mine. One of his fingers reached down to my wrist to trace old wounds that were just raised, whiter skin than that around them.

The rage was gone from his eyes when he looked back up at me, "This is not the first time." He looked a little confused as he made his statement.

"Can I have my bandages back now?" I finally managed to ask quietly, unable to meet his gaze. I stared down at where his finger was still running itself over and over the old scars.

Just like that, he was angry again, "Answer my question." His voice was low and dangerous. The grip he had on my hand and my other wrist tightened menacingly.

"I don't want to tell you anything about myself." The words came out colder than I had expected, and a little part of me immediately stilled in fear of what his retaliation would be. My mind was driving me crazy! Half the time I wanted him, and the other half I was scared to death of him.

The space between us disappeared as Gaara shoved me back up against the door again. I jerked my face to the side, and he placed his mouth next to my ear, "I will get you to tell me everything about yourself soon enough." His words sent a shiver through me, and somewhere down inside of me there was a glimmer of joy. _Does he actually want to get to know me?_

He released me and stepped away, "The gauze is in the cupboard behind the mirror." He said, gesturing to the bathroom behind me.

Gaara stalked off towards his bedroom and I slowly peeled myself off of the door, going into the bathroom to throw away and replace the bandages that he had so stealthily removed. _Asshole._

I wandered down the hall slowly after wrapping the gauze carefully around my forearm, reluctant to be back in Gaara's presence. Unfortunately, just as I was considering sneaking down the stairs for a few more Gaara-free moments, he came out of his room. My mouth went dry. This boy was going to be the death of me.

His pants were still the same tight black jeans, but he had traded his previously blue shirt for a black one with crimson splashes on it that stretched tightly across his lovely chest. He had touched up his eyeliner too, so the ice shards that were his eyes seemed even more translucent than before. The red head was gorgeous. The color of his tattoo, hair, and shirt were exactly identical, and it was almost enough to tear my eyes from the body that he was so obviously flaunting under all of those form fitting clothes. Almost, but not quite enough.

A smug smile formed on Gaara's soft lips as he walked closer to me, "Ready to go?" He asked, stopping less than a foot away from me.

"Uh, um, I need to fix my makeup." I told him quickly, needing to be out of his presence. I didn't quite understand why the red head had such an impact on me, but it was damn distracting when he stood there looking so amazing. I had to get away before my mind started to peel those clothes off of him. I was trying to keep myself semi pure, and being around a certain red head was not helping me do so

He reached out and skimmed the tips of his fingers down my cheek, his smile morphing into one that threatened to melt me, "You look sexy. Let's go."

I almost couldn't move to follow him as he brushed past me to go down the stairs, but I forced my limbs to move. _Did he really just say that?_

When we got to the club, I caught sight of myself in a window and glared at Gaara, "I look like shit." I told him. My eyeliner on the bottom had smudged so it looked a lot thicker than I actually wore it, making me look like some sort of tramp with too much makeup on.

The red head darted hooded eyes in my direction as we neared the front of the line to get in, "No, you look hot."

My face heated at the look in his eyes as he turned away, reaching to pull his wallet out.

"Hey." I said suddenly, pulling out the cash I had shoved in my pocket when I had left my purse in his car, "We're not dating, I'll pay for myself."

Gaara brushed my hand away as I tried to hand it to the man collecting, "You are mine, I will pay for you." He said loudly, handing his cash to the bouncer.

I let my hair hide my hot face as the man looked at the two of us a little curiously. Gaara's hand encircled my arm above the bandages and my elbow, and he led me into the place of darkness, flashing lights, and pulsing music.

He immediately took us into the middle of the already large, moving crowd and let a little bit of space form between our bodies. Gaara didn't make any move to dance with me, instead shot me a slight curve of his lips, and began to let his body get synced to the music. I ignored the red head's gleaming eyes on me and closed mine, allowing my body to blend itself with the beat thumping itself into my mind.

The music changed, one song blending almost seamlessly into the next, over and over, and my body just followed the flow. I looked to Gaara, and almost lost my rhythm as I saw his eyes trained on me. Everything about the expression in those ice colored orbs screamed want. The look he gave me was hungry, and I was surprised that he wasn't coming closer, no; he still kept that space between us. We weren't dancing together, but we weren't quite far enough away to be strangers either. I watched impassively as he brushed a girl off who tried to put her body too close to his, then closed my eyes again. Maybe he was keeping up his façade of being nice and letting me enjoy myself for a bit. I also wondered where this nice act was going.

Lost in the pulsing that pumped through my veins and every limb of my body, it took me a moment to register hands on my hips, and a tall frame trying to tuck itself against me. My eyes flashed open to see a certain red head glaring darkly at whoever was behind me. I tried to squirm out of the grip, I didn't want to dance with this stranger, but he, it was definitely a he, held on, grinding his body into mine.

Gaara's hand was suddenly on my arm, and then around my waist, ripping me away from the person holding me captive on the dance floor. "She's mine." He growled loud enough for the man to hear as he pulled my back to his front, much like how the other guy had. With Gaara, it was different though, I found myself not minding the feeling of his hands on my waist, his chest pressed against my back, his face nearing the side of my neck.

My eyes closed, I was unable to even spare a glance for the man that Gaara had taken me from, because the overwhelming presence and power of the red head was intoxicating. His breath on my neck, his lips grazing my skin, they were driving me crazy. My hands moved of their own volition to cover his, and he jerked his hands out from underneath mine, placing them on top without so much as breaking the rhythm of our bodies moving seductively together.

Was this the reason for everything nice he had done to me? Just an excuse to seduce me even further? I had to admit, it was working, even if he hadn't been nice to me, I think I would have let this happen. It was too hard for me to resist him. Even if it was screwing with my mind and everything I had thought I believed, I didn't know if I could stop him. Especially if I could stop him before it was too late. I was so confused; I just wanted to know what he _wanted._

When his lips brushed against my neck again, my head fell backwards, and I was unsure if I had decided to do that, or if my body had decided on its own that it wanted to give Gaara better access. My mind was so foggy because of the sensations that the red head were causing to run through my body. His fingers curved over mine dug into the slightly exposed skin at my waist, and he held me tight against him, making sure that I felt every part of his body firmly against me. Half of me was panicking, and the other half couldn't think at all. I wasn't quite sure what to do.

"Let's go home." Gaara said into my ear, loud enough that I could hear him over the music. His body separated from mine and his hand went to my upper arm, to lead me from the crowd we had become immersed in.

His sudden change in plans, or maybe it had been planned, I wasn't sure, but it was still unnerving. The dancing had tired me out, and maybe the red head was hoping it had lowered my inhibitions. I had no doubt that Gaara would not hesitate to take advantage of any weakness I showed. He would take anything he thought he could get, I could tell from how he was treating me. I almost shuddered to think of what might have happened between us already if I wasn't a stronger willed person.

The car ride was silent, except for the low music playing, something heavy metal. When we reached his home I was still tired, not really wanting to deal with whatever the nasty red head was going to throw at me tonight.

We entered the house to see Temari and Kankuro playing Super Smash Brothers. I sat down next to the sandy haired girl, glancing at the dark haired boy sleeping with his mouth open on the couch. _Do him and Temari ever actually do anything together?_ The next thing I knew, as his siblings watched, Temari with a slightly worried expression on her face, and Kankuro with narrowed eyes at his brother, Gaara grabbed me by my upper arm and hauled me up.

"We're going to bed." He said in a low voice, directed more towards his brother and sister than me. I glared at him as he pulled me away from them.

"What the--"

"You were tired on the way home, you need to rest." Gaara said as his light eyes pierced mine, forcing me to follow him, or get dragged. I chose to walk on my own; being hauled off to bed by the red head was humiliating enough without him actually dragging me there.

I glared at the red head once we reached his room, and crossed my arms over my chest when he released me. "Am I not allowed to socialize with your siblings?" I asked, a little angry at his obvious actions to get me alone with him, again.

The smile that I now knew to be afraid of curved his lips so beautifully, and I dropped my arms, backing away from him. He could get anything out of me that he wanted with that look, and those light blue eyes told me he knew that very well.

"Best get changed for bed." He said, not coming any closer to me, rather, just staying next to the bed. It took me less than a moment to realize why.

I had to go to the bed to get my overnight bag, which he was right next to. I would be right in reach of him. Knowing I couldn't avoid the situation, I walked to the bed, keeping my eyes away from his, refusing to acknowledge that he had won. I grabbed my bag, and turned away, bracing myself for him to grab me, touch me, anything, but he didn't do any of those. My head turned ever so slightly, and my eyes met his cool ones that seemed to be watching me with so much satisfaction. I left the room, thankful that he hadn't touched me.

In the bathroom, down the hall, I changed, brushed my teeth, and accomplished all of those other necessary things you must do before going to bed. I was walking through the hall in my fleece pajama bottoms and tank top, when it occurred to me to wonder where I was going to sleep. Gaara had looked much too satisfied when I had left. I froze, my toes digging into the thick carpet beneath me, was he going to make me sleep in his bed with him? He was, of course he was. That was why the red head hadn't touched me, give me a false sense of security, then pounce.

He found me like that, frozen to the carpet that also held my eyes captivated. Gaara took my bag from my hands once again, and put his other hand under my chin, pulling it up. I refused to meet his gaze, not wanting to see the gleam of satisfaction in them. He had so thoroughly ensnared me that I couldn't even see what his traps were until it was too late.

"I don't want to sleep with you Gaara." I muttered quietly, aware of his intense gaze on me.

He dropped my bag, and my whole body tensed as he shoved me up against the nearest wall. My eyes, against my will, went up to look into his and the look there made my breath catch. There was none of the satisfied, gloating Gaara I had expected. It was raw, dark, and I knew acutely in that moment that the red head wanted more from me than I was willing to give to him.

"Gaara." I said quietly, uncomfortable with that intensely _wanting_ gaze on me.

He seemed to restrain the lust in his eyes for a moment, and a small smile, a very unfamiliar one, crept over his lips. It was a soft, _normal_ smile. Had I been asked before that moment, I would have told anyone that Gaara wouldn't know how to smile like a normal human being if it had bit him in the a—

My thoughts were even cut off by the soft, brief kiss he suddenly pressed to my lips. The red head drew back, the same smile on those soft lips, "Let's go to sleep."

I think I was in a trance as I let Gaara lead me by my upper arm to his bedroom. He dropped my bag on the floor, and gestured towards the bed, "I still need to change."

I sat on the edge of the mattress, watching him go to his dresser and pull out a pair of bottoms, and nothing else. He cast a glance at me over his shoulder, then his hands went to the top button of his oh so tight jeans. I forced my eyes closed, not allowing myself the guilty pleasure of watching him peel them off. It seemed like hours, but was probably only a few seconds, then Gaara laid a hand on my shoulder, and my eyes shot open.

There was barely enough sense left in me to keep my mouth from hanging open, but I managed that, and nothing else. I stared unabashedly at the expanse of Gaara's gloriously, muscular, naked chest. He had the kind of body that any girl would kill to touch, most modeling companies would kill to snare for their line up, and the kind of body that God had to hide away from the angels so that their thoughts would stay pure. He was undoubtedly, even more gorgeous without a shirt on than with.

His fingers touched my chin and my attention was drawn, ever so slowly, away from the captivating sight of his bared chest to the now satisfied eyes that were roaming over my body.

"Uh." Was all I could manage, I didn't know what to say. I wasn't sure I had ever been in the presence of what was undoubtedly as close to the legends of demi gods as I was likely to get, and the experience was definitely something that would be imprinted on my mind forever.

Gaara's hands went to my shoulders and he gently pushed me, and I let myself fall backwards onto the bed, unable to resist him. I mean, who would be able to resist _that_? His body was suddenly flush against mine and a sound escaped me at just the feeling of where his bare skin met mine in a few places, namely the neckline of my tank top that had noticeably slipped down. Maybe it had been my fault that Gaara's eyes had held that breath catching look earlier.

The red head hands slid down my arms until his fingers could encircle my wrists, and he raised them above my head and pressed them to the bed, gazing down at me with a look all too similar to the one from in the hallway. His face was so close to mine, I could smell the mint of his freshly brushed teeth and see the places in his red tattoo that he needed to get filled in. His lips met mine with a sudden fierceness that instantly stole my breath. An embarrassing moan crept up my throat into his mouth and he pressed his body harder into mine, minimizing my movements. Then, with one quick flick of his tongue to my lower lip, the devious red head ended the kiss, pulling his body away from mine abruptly.

"Get in bed." It was an order, but, very surprisingly, no fear leapt up in me. His words had a very innocent tone to them, something I was sure never to hear from a certain red head.

Tearing my eyes away from his chest, and wondering if I was making a mistake, I crawled under the covers that instantly enveloped me with Gaara's amazing scent. I watched him go to the door, close it, and flick the light off. The room was suddenly engulfed in darkness, and I scooted as close to the wall as I could get. I felt the dip in the mattress and Gaara's arm brushed mine in the darkness. I tensed, waiting for him to do something, anything, but no further contact came.

"Goodnight." He murmured quietly.

I lay for a few minutes on my back, then, convinced that he was going to do nothing, I turned on my side to face the wall, drawing a pillow up under my head. I lay there; listening to the evening out of Gaara's breathing, and shifted my position slightly, slowly, as not to make enough movement to wake the red head. I wasn't comfortable.

"What the hell is wrong?" Gaara suddenly muttered, after about twenty minutes of my attempting to stealthily change positions in the shared bed.

I stopped moving immediately, "I'm uncomfortable." I said, sighing unnecessarily.

I felt him move to face me, and could make out the faint outline of his face. I had ended up in a position facing him when he had finally spoken.

"Why?" He asked simply, a hand reaching out to touch my hair.

I ducked my head, even though I knew he couldn't see the heat that was creeping up into my cheeks. I muttered an answer under my breath, not really wanting him to hear.

"What was that?" Gaara asked me in his low, smooth voice, nothing mocking in it.

I closed my eyes tightly, "I forgot my teddy bear at home." I told him, loud enough that I knew he would hear.

Gaara shoved something abruptly into my chest, and I clutched at it, realizing that it was a small stuffed bear. Even though I couldn't see much of the red head in the darkness, my eyes still went to where I knew his face would be. "Uh, thank you." I said quietly, turning so that my back was to him once again, teddy bear now held tightly to my chest.

I buried my face against it, and it smelled of him so strongly that I immediately relaxed into the bed, Gaara's scent somehow just as comforting as holding something in my arms. My comfort was ruined just as quickly though, as I felt him slowly press his body into my back.

"What the hell?" I asked, a little bitterly as his arms slid around me tightly.

His mouth neared my ear, "You took my teddy bear, now I need something to cuddle with."

I shuddered uncontrollably, and he settled his body in closer to mine. The position was very intimate. But somehow, with Gaara's body cocooned around me, warm at my back, and his teddy bear safely in my own arms, I fell asleep.

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**Author's Note: Hope you liked that one! . I hope I'm building enough of the plot here, not that you guys really know what it truly is yet….hmmm….Is the Gaara teddy bear thing too cliché? I wasn't sure, but I definitely liked the ending with it in there….I sleep with a teddy bear too, sooooo I wanted it there. Haha. Don't think I'm a weirdo! Please! Or I might not write for you anymore *thinly veiled threats* Oh, and I'm not one for warnings about cutting and such because that would give away parts of the storyline, so sorry to you guys who don't like that stuff…..**


	9. Love

**Wow. I thought I would never get this chapter down, but a blast of muse hit me and here it is. Thank you to: darkness engulfs me, Kida-of-the-Wolves, and Jaclyn for faithfully reviewing my last chapter. I am so glad that everyone is enjoying this as much as I am. **

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**Chapter 9: Love**

I woke up warm, and very comfortable. It took me a moment to gauge my surroundings, and I froze for a moment as I realized that I was in an unfamiliar bed, with someone pressed up against my back. _Gaara._ Thinking of the red head didn't help me to relax one bit. One of his arms was around my waist, and had somehow managed to sneak under my shirt during the night. I tried to move it away from me, but it only tightened around my body.

The red head snuggled his face further into my neck, "Where do you think you're going?" His tone was almost half hearted, and laced with sleep. He sounded so cute and tired. _Did I really just think that?_

I maneuvered my hand to look at my watch, "Its nine o clock, it's time to get out of bed." I said, suppressing the urge to burrow myself deeper into the blankets. I was so warm.

"Too early to wake up. It's Saturday. Now go back to sleep." He muttered against my neck, making a different kind of warmth spread down to my stomach.

Said stomach decided to make its presence known, "I'm hungry." I told him, unnecessarily as the noise had probably been loud enough.

Gaara let out a small chuckle, "It can wait, I want to sleep."

I finally made the decision to throw the blankets off of me and try to sit up, which the nasty red head immediately prevented with the constricting arm he had around me still. "Please," I looked at him, having managed to end up on my back, "I can't stand being in bed this long."

He rolled his light blue eyes, releasing me and sitting up himself.

"You can stay in bed, its fine; I'll find something for myself to eat." I told him quickly, not sure if waking up this early would make him grumpy or not. Grumpy Gaara was definitely not something I think I ever wanted to experience.

The red head stretched luxuriously, raising his arms above his head. My eyes were instantly drawn to his sculpted chest. He was shaped exactly as I liked to see. There was definition to his body, but there was no way he was bulky, just….beautiful. That was what I liked to look at, guys who knew how to keep their body looking good without overdoing it and looking like some sort of meat pie.

A lazy grin stretched over his face as he looked at me and I realized that he was done stretching, and I had been staring. I looked away, feeling the blush dusting my cheeks; he knew exactly how to get to me.

"Let's go get you something to eat, little girl." Gaara said, grabbing my arm and hauling me out of the bed with him.

The sound of a short ringtone drew my gaze to my purse, which was sitting next to my overnight bag. I removed myself from Gaara's grip and grabbed my cell phone, looking at the screen to see that Kiba had texted me a good morning. I smiled, slipping the phone into the pocket of my pajama bottoms, intending on answering once I had something in my stomach, food was my number one priority right now. I turned back to Gaara and allowed him to lead the way to the kitchen downstairs, watching the muscles move in that bare back, resisting the urge to touch him. I clenched my fists.

In the kitchen, Gaara pulled open a cupboard, "Captain Crunch or Fruit Loops?" The question was so normal, so not Gaara, and I almost didn't answer.

"Captain Crunch." I spit out when he looked at me with the question repeated in his eyes.

He grabbed the box from the cupboard and since he began to prepare it for me, I pulled out my cell phone to reply to Kiba's text. I was actually surprised the boy had gotten up this early; I thought I was the only oddball who didn't sleep until noon on the weekends.

Before I could read the quick reply that was announced by the soft tone of my phone, a hand snatched it from me. Gaara's eyes narrowed as he read the screen, and he placed my phone on the counter, turning his back to me as he reached for the refrigerator door.

"Don't talk to that mutt." He said, pulling milk out of the fridge.

"What the hell? I can talk to whoever I want, you don't own me." I said in a barely controlled voice, not only was he trying to tell me who I could be friends with, he had just insulted Kiba.

He began to take the cap off of the milk jug, not bothering to look at me, "You are mine, I do own you." His tone was completely nonchalant, as if he wasn't basically telling me that I had no rights and that he was my master or something.

I couldn't control myself any further. My fist suddenly connected with his cheek, and the instant I was no longer touching him, Gaara turned burning eyes towards me. I felt my eyes widen, I had actually landed a blow on him, and a very solid one at that.

He suddenly turned away from me, his hands moving to clutch at his red hair as he let go of the milk jug, and I almost moved towards him, but then his hands dropped to his sides, his fists clenched, and he turned those rage filled eyes to me.

My legs unconsciously took me a step back from the red head that was literally vibrating with anger in front of me. Gaara's jaw was clenched, the spot where I had hit him was very red, almost the color of his brick hair, and I knew there would be a bruise forming. The fury in those usually ice cold eyes made me want to turn and run. I may have been afraid of Gaara before, but it was nothing compared to this. The look in his eyes conveyed very clearly to me that I was about to die. There was no other intent behind that expression except for the end of me. I backed up even further, and my heart pumped impossibly fast as he followed me, step for step.

His hands suddenly closed around my upper arms, and I hadn't even been aware of him getting close enough to me to do that. My panic was engulfing me; I had made the biggest mistake of my life. Hitting Gaara had been a no no, something I couldn't just apologize for and expect to be forgiven. He was going to make me pay, and in a way that would probably end up with my body broken and bleeding on his kitchen floor. I doubt I would ever make it to the hospital.

The next thing that I knew, my face was near the red head's ass as I was slung over his shoulder. His arm was firmly around my waist and he was climbing the stairs before I had enough sense to wonder what the hell was going on. Why wasn't he beating the hell out of me? Did he want to do it where his siblings couldn't walk in on us?

My panic hazed mind wouldn't even let me enjoy the view of Gaara's ass that was so close to my eyes, because it was shutting itself down, preparing itself for the impending pain. I had never given up before a fight before, but I was so sure already that I couldn't win this that I was giving up, I couldn't even find the strength to struggle in Gaara's hold, I was dead weight.

My back hit the mattress, my eyes flashed open, and Gaara was above me, pinning my wrists together in his favorite one handed hold all in one motion. My mind was screaming in confusion now, the panic mixing in and throwing all my sense to hell. I was suddenly caught by the red head's gaze, and my mind emptied of all panic, confusion, whatever because of what I was seeing. Lust, pure lust. The intent in Gaara's eyes was suddenly so different, yet so evident that my small moment of a clear head disappeared with the onset of a new panic.

His free hand went to the collar of my tank top, and a grin that could only be described as evil curved his lips cruelly, "I decided that its time to make you mine, irrevocably, little girl." He told me in a darkly sexy voice that confirmed my fear stricken thoughts. Then he tore my shirt down the front.

The meaty sound of cloth tearing reached my ears and the panic reached my control center. I struggled as violently as I could, not wanting this to happen with all of my heart, body, and soul. This was so not happening. I was not going to let this happen. There was no way Gaara was going to take this from me, no way in hell.

The red head pinned my moving body to the mattress with his own, and his eyes traveled down the visible part of my bare, pale torso. The hand that had torn my shit was suddenly on my breast, and damn my body, but a sigh escaped my mouth at the contact. I had never been touched like that before, never in my life, yet instead of resisting, my body was welcoming the feeling, heat already rushing to fill my stomach.

"I'm going to scream." I warned him, managing to form coherent words as he looked down at me with so much want in his light orbs. I wasn't quite sure if I would be able to make good on my threat, my voice was already breathy, and being this close to Gaara was not helping me. Even though I was scared out of my mind, my stupid fucking body wouldn't listen to me, it loved Gaara too much, it wanted him, and was telling my mind to hell with it all. But dammit, this was important to me.

He crushed his lips to mine, hand going to the back of my head where his fingers threaded through my hair violently, earning a gasp from me. There was something about him, about the way he did everything, that got to me, and I couldn't keep it from happening.

Our bare upper bodies pressed against each other was so overwhelming that I couldn't help but melt into the feverish press of Gaara's lips on mine. I breathed in his scent through my nose and came undone, throwing myself into the kiss so completely. My tongue fond its way into his mouth and I wasted no time in taking everything he was offering to me. It wasn't until he broke away from me and began kissing and biting his way down my neck that my mind came back to the surface.

Even with my coherency returning to me, every time his teeth closed around my skin, the small bit of thought in my head escaped me, and I couldn't draw the breath to speak, to stop whatever was happening. He felt so good, pressed against me like this, his mouth drawing ever closer to my breasts that were only hidden by my bra now.

"Gaara! Stop!" His hand had grown lax at my wrists as he had to stretch himself out to reach my chest with his mouth and I managed to break free, my hands going straight to his head to stop him from moving that mouth any further.

My fingers were in his hair, and I managed to jerk his head up to meet his eyes with my fear filled ones. "We can't do this." My voice was shaking so much, and I expected him to just capture my way ward hands with his again. The lust was still so evident in his eyes, and just seeing that made my whole body warm, but no matter how willing my body was, I was still scared shitless.

"Why not, little girl?" The dangerous red head leaned into me, forcing me to use my arms to hold his face off of mine.

I shut my eyes tightly, "Because sex is something you do with the person you love!" I blurted out, my hands falling away from his head.

I felt Gaara catch himself with his hands on the mattress, and he held his body very carefully above mine, "Love?" A bitter laugh came from the boy above me, and I opened my eyes to see the disbelief in his, "You believe in that kind of bullshit?"

My gaze avoided his, I couldn't force myself to meet the mocking look in his light blue eyes, I wasn't sure I could defend myself against someone who likely didn't even know what love was. "I am not going to have sex with you Gaara, I don't love you." I took a deep breath, staring at his hand gripping the sheets next to my body, "It would be wrong. Yes, I believe in love, I don't care if you don't. It's not like I have expected it of you." My words came out softly, and I wanted to curse at the obvious undertone of hurt. Somewhere, deep in me, I had hoped, prayed that maybe something good would come out of this. Even though Gaara was a cold bastard, I had hoped that since he had me to take out his moods on, he would somehow change. But there had also been the smart part of me that knew that he would always be a cold bastard. The red head was the first person that I had ever given up on. There was no redemption for a person who had never experienced love, someone who did not even understand it. The word had even sounded foreign coming from his mouth, like he had never said it before. Like it was the first time he was trying to speak a new language. It had sounded awkward, and it definitely did not belong on those soft lips.

"You want me," He paused, and I looked at him, and the absolute unbelieving expresseion in his eyes, "to love you?"

I shook my head, looking down, "I didn't say that, Gaara. I just can't give you what you want, because it's wrong." I said, the words spilling out of me. Why did I feel like apologizing to him all of the sudden? Why did I feel like I was the one who was wrong here? Why did he make me so confused all of the time?

"So," He said slowly, his mouth moving slowly around the words as my attention was brought back to his face, "if we were to love each other," the look in his eyes was another scary one, it looked absolutely conniving, and my heart paused at the words coming from his mouth, "you would let me have you." It all came out as a statement, and he wasn't even quite looking at me anymore, the expression on his face becoming ever more thoughtful and devious.

I didn't know what to say, how the hell was I supposed to answer that? The biggest part of me doubted so strongly that this cold hearted red head holding me hostage on his bed was even capable of understanding love, and yet he was talking as if he was going to give it a try? I couldn't quite wrap myself around that idea; every reasonable part of me rejected it based purely on logic. One incapable of love could not love, that was that. Yet where had I gotten the idea that Gaara was incapable of love? Had I just not met someone that he loved? Did he love anyone?

"Hm?" His eyes locked on mine, he was obviously expecting an answer from me. His gaze was intense and searching, as if he was genuinely curious.

My mouth stuttered over the words, "I, I guess I suppose." I managed to force out, unable to predict where this conversation was leading.

I lay there silently and watched the expressions flit across his face so quickly, as if I was watching him in fast forward for who knew how long. When his eyes finally settled on me again, his lips curved into a smile that made my heart leap and my mind lock itself away.

"I have a proposal to up the stakes of this little game that we have been playing." Gaara told me, leaning on one arm, letting his body rest more fully against mine, and reaching up with his free hand to touch my brown locks lightly.

I stiffened; fear attempting to petrify me, what the hell was he going to do to me now? "What?" I asked in a voice that managed to sound not as strangled as my throat felt.

His face neared mine, allowing us to be separated by mere inches, "I give us a month. Whoever manages to make the other fall in love with them gets to make one request of the other." Gaara's tone was quiet, breathy, and mixed with a hint of excitement.

"That's not fair." I blurted out, almost slapping a hand over my mouth in mortification. Why the hell did I let my mouth run away with me like that? I was going to get in trouble, more serious trouble than I was already in with the conniving red head.

A small smile appeared on his face, "Why not? Do you not believe yourself capable of making me fall for you?" His voice mocked me, and I narrowed my eyes.

"As if you even understand the concept of love." My words came out clipped, almost sounding spiteful. _What the hell is wrong with you? Do you have a death wish?_

No trace of anger crossed Gaara's features, instead, the same sickly sweet smile remained and he tapped the tattoo on his head, "That is something to say to someone who reminds himself everyday of the word when he looks in the mirror." The words were light, but I could almost taste the bitterness that was laced through them. There was a story behind that tattoo. I was absolutely sure of it now and I wanted to know.

"Deal." I said, acknowledging that I was making the second biggest mistake of my life, second only to hitting the red head in the first place. The mark on his face was beginning to purple already, and I was sure that he was not going to be happy the next time he looked in the mirror, reminded of the word love or not, he was going to have one hell of a black eye by tonight.

"Good." He whispered, lowering his lips to mine for a chaste kiss. Gaara then moved himself off of the bed, allowing me to be free.

I was suddenly very aware of my exposed body and I crossed my arms over my front, avoiding his gaze as I moved to grab a shirt from my over night bag. I pulled off the tattered remains of the tank top, keeping my back to Gaara. He might have already seen it, but it wasn't happening again, not if I could help it. _One request._ I already knew what Gaara's would be if that four letter word ever escaped my lips in his presence ever again. I suppressed the excited shudder of my body, and the flutter in my heart at the prospect of Gaara even opening his mind to the idea of love. The next month was going to be the worst sort of hell. I imagined the suspiciously nice Gaara of yesterday magnified by ten, and then swiftly blocked the thoughts from my mind.

_I am so screwed._

Now where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, in my own thoughts, pertaining to the same red haired boy. Fuck.

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**Author's Notes: *happy dance***


	10. Promise

**Thank you to everyone who has been faithful to this fic. I am so sorry for the belated update, I'm so busy with writing my novel and school and working now too that I have a hard time writing anything extra. I'm not going to give up on this fic, and for those of you who also read **The Book of the Hidden Leaf, **I'm not giving up on that one either, I'm just so terribly busy that updates might be a little spread out, or a lottle spread out. ^.^ Sorry about it, but here is the next chapter for you to sate your never ending thirst for amazing fanfiction…..**

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**Chapter 10: Promise**

I managed to escape from Gaara's clutches on Saturday before I made any more stupid decisions, got through Sunday and church without feeling like God was rejecting me for the unholy deal I had made the day before, and made it to Monday morning without completely dreading school. I was actually surprised that I remembered what my classes were, because it seemed that all of my memories of my first week of school had a pair of pale, ice blue eyes, and a mop of silky red hair floating through all of them.

"Kagami." Karin said as we got into my car to head to school, tossing her long black hair dramatically over her shoulder as she narrowed her eyes at me.

"What?" I asked, starting my car and backing out of the driveway.

"Temari is that Gaara boy's sister." She said in an accusing tone.

I looked at her, mildly confused, and shrugged, "And?"

Her bright blue eyes narrowed further and I wondered if she knew that she looked like she was squinting at me, "You stayed at _his_ house, and I doubt you were there to hang out with his sister."

I rolled my eyes, "I actually did get to know his siblings, and nothing happened Karin, now if you don't mind, I would love it if you would keep your nose out of the whole thing." Then I added as an afterthought, "I mean it, Karin. Stay out of this. I'm not doing anything bad, believe me."

"Fine." She told me, "But if he so much as moves to hurt you in any way, I'm going to make sure he will never have children." Her face was so serious, but I had to use my best poker face to keep the laughter from showing that was threatening to bubble up my throat. The image of my little sister landing a kick between the red head's legs made tears try to leak from my eyes. It was moments like these that I remembered that we were a lot more alike than our appearances led most to believe.

We made it the rest of the way to school without bringing it back up again, that was another thing we both had in common, our inability to leave things alone, but Karin managed, even though I knew she was itching to know everything about my time at Gaara's. None of which she would ever, under any circumstances, find out about. If I had my way, those two days would be locked away in a high security vault forever and no one would ever know about any of it.

Before I even made it inside the building, Kiba bounded up to me and threw an arm around my shoulders, "Hey Kagami, how did your weekend go?"

I shot a look at Karin for her to keep her mouth shut, and turned a bright smile on the brunette boy, "It was great Kiba, thanks, remember, we've already talked about our weekends?" I laughed a little, remembering the ensuing text conversation after I had left Gaara's house. The enthusiastic boy hadn't seemed too put off that I hadn't texted him back for a few hours, instead he had told me everything he had done with Akamaru over the weekend. He sure spent a lot of time with his dog, he wasn't just a calming mechanism for the boy, Akamaru was his pet, his best friend. The saying that dog is man's best friend really applied to those two. As I thought about it, I let the giant white dog lick my hand and I scratched behind his ears a bit.

"What the hell does he want _now_?" Kiba growled, literally, under his breath. I followed his hazel eyes to a smiling, gorgeous red head that made my breath stop for a moment.

Gaara's ice shard eyes were making an obvious attempt at not being completely frozen as he eyed Kiba and the arm he had around my shoulder, "Would you mind if I borrowed Kagami for a moment, dog breath?" I sighed as he ruined the polite tone with the name calling tagged on at the end and felt Kiba's arm tighten around me.

"It's all right Kiba," I said, then narrowed my eyes at Gaara, "You don't sound very mature when you call him names." I shrugged off the brunette's arm and smiled at him, "I'll see you in class."

A hand enveloped mine and I glanced up in surprise at the red head as he tugged me away from Kiba, towards the back of the school building. I followed him, staring in bewilderment at our now entwined fingers and realized that I had only touched Gaara a few times with my own hands, and all of them had been violent, or attempted violent actions. His hand was warm in mine, which had nearly been frozen the moment I had stepped out the car. It was cold. I had no clue how the boy was not wearing a jacket, but the warmth in his hands led me to believe that he just didn't get cold. I, on the other hand, was bundled up, with leggings under my jeans, a long sleeved shirt and a heavy jacket on. I swear it was going to snow today.

He finally pulled me around the corner of the building, into a fairly secluded area, and drew me into his arms in a tight embrace. My arms went around his waist hesitantly, I wasn't quite sure what I was supposed to do, but when he didn't flinch away from my touch, I firmly hugged him back.

"Gaara?" I asked quietly, hiding the suspicion that was creeping up in me.

He drew back and smiled warmly, _warmly_ at me. It nearly made my heart melt into a puddle at his sneaker clad feet. His light blue eyes had a light in them I had never seen before and I wasn't quite sure how to identify it, but then I was distracted as he spoke, "I have a question to ask you." His breath came out in a puff of air that I could see in the frigid temperature.

"Yeah?" I said, confusion tainting my voice, he had something to ask me that he couldn't ask in front of Kiba? Or later? Plus, it was damn freezing out here and I wanted to go inside where it would be slightly warmer. I had no doubt that the school had very little heating; I just knew that body heat should have warmed it up a bit by now.

His eyes held my gaze seriously and he grabbed my hand swiftly with his. I looked down momentarily at his bigger hand around my tiny one, then back into those lovely light colored eyes. _Since when have I thought those shards of ice were anything but cold?_

"Will you go out with me?" A slight smile graced his red lips, and for a moment I couldn't speak, what the hell was he playing at?

I looked at him in disbelief, "Uh, Gaara?" Was all I could get out. He was utterly confusing me.

The smile widened, and he shrugged ever so slightly, and I decided that Gaara shrugging was the cutest gesture in the entire world; I nearly died at that small movement of his shoulders combined with the look on his face. It was all so innocent looking. Innocent looked so good on Gaara.

"I figured we should go about this the correct way. Aren't you supposed to date before you fall in love?" The red head's lips moved, and I barely deciphered the words coming out of his mouth. I was replaying that cute shrug over and over in my head; there was no way I was going to survive whatever the hell I was doing with Gaara.

"Uh, sure?" I said hesitantly, only just barely realizing what he had just said.

"So is that a yes?" He smiled, this time a little smugness creeping into it, but the look in his eyes was almost anticipant, or expectant.

My heart beat a little faster, what exactly would it mean if I said yes, I mean, we were playing with an emotion here that was never meant to be played with. Was Gaara attempting to make this into something that wasn't a game? _Love isn't a game, no matter how you go about it._ I reminded myself, this was something very important, and somehow, Gaara had grasped that importance.

"Yes." I uttered that three letter word so quietly, I questioned whether he had heard me or not, but the look of utter satisfaction gleamed on his face so suddenly that I knew he had heard me and I decided that maybe Gaara hadn't grasped the importance of this situation, maybe all he cared about was winning. It was suddenly very clear that he was willing to do anything to win.

"That's wonderful." He reached into his pocket with a secretive grin and pulled out something silver and shiny and grabbed my left hand with his other one. I tried to wrench my hand from his grip before he could slip the ring onto my finger, but of course, I failed.

"We're not getting married." I said under my breath, glaring into his bright eyes.

"It's not an engagement ring, Kagami." There he went, saying my name to my face for the first time and don't think I missed it when he said it to Kiba. Gaara was in this to win, and I knew that it was nothing but a game to him. Saying my name was okay, but giving me a ring was going absolutely too far.

The silver band fit around my ring finger perfectly and look oh so much like a wedding ring, in fact, it was much to similar for my tastes. "I'm not wearing this." I told him, my hand still held captive in his.

He used my hand to draw me closer to his body, and I could feel the warmth emanating from him. It made me want to be closer, but I wasn't going to allow him that small satisfaction, "It's not an engagement ring," he pause and looked down at it, and then twisted it on my finger until a small engraving that had been previously invisible was revealed, "It's a promise ring." He finished, looking back at me, obviously looking for a reaction. I saw the word engraved on the ring, sure enough, it was _promise_. In tiny letters, there it was.

"You know," I said, looking up from the ring to him, "there's usually a promise to go along with the ring when you give it." I let the words flow from my lightly, but every part of me was tense. What the hell did he mean by this?

He looked at me with half closed eyes, as if he was extremely content with himself in that moment, "I know." Gaara opened those light blue eyes lined with thick blackness all the way and gazed at me intently, "Kagami."

Him saying my name in that perfect voice gathered all of my attention and held it. My breath hovered in my throat, waiting for the words that were obviously just about to come out of his mouth.

"I promise that I will never force you to go any farther than what you are comfortable with, in anything."

Even though everything about it lulled me in, I saw right through it. He knew that the promise was null and void if I ever said that four letter word to him. For Gaara, the word love meant he could have me, fortunately, I was a little more educated than he on the matter and there was no way any of this was ever happening. If he was a man of his word, that promise had just sealed his fate, and he had just lost the game. I could breathe now.

He smiled at me, his eyes closing part way, and then tugged me along with him into the school building. I didn't say a word as we entered the warm hallway. Gaara walked me to my locker, and we both ignored the stares at our entwined fingers.

As I opened my locker, I happened to look over and about ten feet down the hallway at Naruto's locker where the raven haired Sasuke dude had Naruto back up against the metal doors. I watched him with his arm against the lockers over the blonde's head, lean in to whisper something in his ear. My first instinct was to go over there and get rid of him, because Naruto was obviously uncomfortable, and his hands were at Sasuke's chest, trying to push him away, but then I watched the expression on Naruto's face change from pissed off to embarrass in just a moment. I could see the red in his cheeks from where I was with Gaara, and I immediately reassessed the situation. I noticed how Sasuke was a lot closer than most guys would be to each other, and he was smirking with his mouth still next to Naruto's ear, glancing at the blond from underneath his thick black bangs.

My locker shut, I grabbed Gaara's hand again and watched Sasuke leave Naruto to get his things out of his locker. I dragged the red head behind me unconsciously in my beeline to my blond friend, "Is Sasuke being rude to you, Naruto?" I asked him quietly as he turned to look at me.

A light dusting of pink tinged his cheeks, "Nope. I'll meet you in class, okay?" He said quickly, then dashed off in the opposite direction of our classroom, and the opposite direction that the raven haired boy had gone.

"I don't think I have ever seen Naruto subdued like that." I mused aloud. Gaara just raised a nonexistent eyebrow at me, raising the red tattoo on his forehead with the motion.

I shrugged and the bell for class rang, "See you then." I said, trying to extract my hand from his. He held on.

"I'll walk you to class, Kagami." He told me with a serene smile on his face.

At the door of the classroom, the seductive red head pulled me into his arms and kissed me slowly, ignoring the wave of students passing by us. He drew back to look at me and his eyes roamed over my face a moment before settling on my eyes with a slight smile on his face.

He leaned in to my ear and whispered, "Happy Valentines Day, Kagami." And then he walked away, leaving me with a hand to my lips where I could still taste the sweetness of his breath. _It's Valentine's Day?_

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**Author's Note: Hn, I guess I explained it all in the beginning. Oh, and I was thinking to explain the lack of warnings in this fic. I don't like warnings, because they give stuff away. When you guys read this, I want it to be like a novel you are reading for the first time, everything that pops up is a surprise. Warnings ruin a lot of stuff. If you run into something you don't like, stop reading. And this is rated M, so pretty much anything I say goes, and I feel that the rating is warning enough for you guys. I hope that's okay! If it isn't…I guess you won't read more… *sad face* Love to all of you awesome readers!**


	11. My Red Head

**Thank you guys for being so patient and not giving up on me. I apologize for the absolutely absurd length of time I was unable to update this. I have been quite focused on the book I am writing for the past few months, and still have not gotten as much done as I would have liked to. But Gaara and Kagami, mostly Gaara's amazing sexiness, wiggled their way back into my brain again and told me they needed some more attention. So here is chapter 11, and I hope to have chapter 12 out soon. I've got some great ideas bursting all over the place in my head so hopefully you will enjoy them. Thank you!**

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**Chapter 11: My Red Head**

Gaara imposed himself on my life for the rest of the week like any over protective boyfriend. His favorite activity became situating himself right between Kiba and me at the lunch table. The red head would smirk at the brunette and move Kiba's chair over so he could slide his in next to me. He didn't worry about sitting between Naruto and me; rather, Sasuke took care of that. Across the table, Sakura and Ino just openly drooled at Sasuke and Gaara. Most of my lunch time was spent making a conscious effort not to send withering glares at the two girls whenever their eyes landed on my red head.

_My red head?_ I shook my head slightly as those words growled through my mind when Ino batted her lashes at an oblivious Gaara. Today he had jabbed Kiba with his elbow 'accidentally' when he sat down. I had watched as Kiba almost shoved him back, but thought better of it. Maybe there was hope for a friendship between the two?

Chemistry came all too quickly and we had another lab in which Gaara did everything effortlessly while I fumbled around, managing to break a test tube before he refused to let me touch anything anymore. I got to do all the math equations on paper.

"I hate math." I muttered without looking at him, knowing he wouldn't even glance over to acknowledge me. Gaara had quickly stopped reacting to anything I said under my breath.

"But you're better at it than I am. What's the next measurement?" My head snapped up as I looked at the red head, cute in his lab goggles. He had just complimented me, and not on my looks. I inwardly scoffed, there was no way he actually thought I was smart. Once again, he was just lulling me into a false sense of security.

The rest of the class was spent with me rattling off the measurements we needed for each solution and we got done early. I sat down, attempting to rub the red lines out of my face left behind by the goggles. Somehow Gaara had ended up with only a barely visible line above his brow bone. I glared at him as a smirk grew on his face at my discomfort. Then I gave up and laid my head in my arms on the black counter top that was our lab station.

"Wanna come over again tonight?" The red head's voice penetrated my aching head. Math always gave me a headache.

I suppressed a groan, "I promised Kiba, Naruto, and the rest of the gang that I would go to a movie with them." I met his light colored eyes and watched as nothing gave away what he was thinking.

"I could take you there and hang around the mall until you get done." He grinned somewhat mischievously, an obvious hint as to just why he wanted me to come over again so badly.

Gladly, I was able to shake my head, "Naruto is picking me up."

"I'll pick you up from the movie then. Pack a bag and bring it with." He basically ordered me as the bell rang and we gathered our things.

I looked at him as we walked out the door together, "Do I have a choice?"

Gaara smiled, and it was one that told me he wanted to go things that I would never allow him to. His lips met mine for a quick, but not very chaste kiss and drew back with a sparkle in his eyes, "Text me when the movie is done." He turned the opposite way down the hallway from where I needed to go, leaving me with no doubt that I wasn't really getting a choice.

At home, I packed my overnight bag again and threw it in my car. I was planning on having Gaara take me back home to get my own car, because having him take me home in the morning would not go over well with my parents, especially if they ever found out we were dating. I would have just simply driven myself to the movie theater, except I didn't know where it was and the directions Naruto had tried to give me were complicated and basically impossibly to follow. So he was picking me up.

A few minutes before six, I heard a knock at the door and I waved goodbye to my parents. Naruto was standing outside and parked on my curb was a sleek black Mercedes, not something I would picture Naruto driving.

He must have caught my glance at the car because he said, "Sasuke is driving us so I don't have to!"

"I have to ride in a car with that asshole?" I asked as we walked over there.

Naruto shrugged, "He's my best friend, Kagami."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I slid in the car less than gracefully as Naruto held the door behind the driver's seat open for me. I stayed behind Sasuke, ignoring the glance he cast at me in his rearview mirror, turning my attention on Naruto once he climbed into the passenger seat.

As Sasuke pulled his car away from the curb, Naruto turned around in his seat and said, "I would give you the front seat but--"

"No, no, believe me, its fine." Riding shotgun next to Sasuke was not on my top ten list of fun things to do before you die, no, not anywhere near.

"Not like I want to sit next to the queen bitch anyways."

Naruto swung at his head as Sasuke pulled away from the curb, "Be nice to her you bastard! Or I won't sit next to you in the movie theater!"

Sasuke ignored us after that.

The movie was an action flick with aliens in it. Sakura and Ino were the only ones who had voted for another movie, and being vastly outnumbered by the boys who wanted to see things explode and people fight, they lost the vote.

I ended up sitting between Naruto and Kiba. Sasuke was on the other side of the blond, and I had managed to keep from strangling him when he had pulled Naruto down into the seat next to him. I wasn't quite sure just what was up between them, Naruto said Sasuke was his best friend, but it seemed more like a love-hate relationship than a good friendship to me. The two of them probably bickered and picked at each other more than they laughed together. Although when they ended up hitting each other, it usually ended up in one of them laughing _at_ the other.

Settling into the cushioned theater chair, I focused on the film and stopped thinking about my friend's friendship. I wasn't my business unless Naruto wanted to share.

The beginning of the movie was boring, and I promptly I fell asleep. I discovered this when I ended up with way more of Kiba's spit on my cheek than I had ever wanted to know was in his mouth.

"Kiba! What the hell?! You licked me?!" I jolted awake, the words just flying out of my mouth, and got quite a few angry shushes from the people in the theater around us.

Naruto was laughing quietly while Kiba looked like he wanted to laugh, but just grinned at me as I glared at him.

He shrugged, laughter in his eyes, "You were asleep for like fifteen minutes, you were going to miss the height of the action." The brunette pointed to the screen, "Look, the spaceship is landing now."

I really focused on the movie after wiping my face with the sleeve of my jacket. I made sure to keep myself awake the entire movie. With the amount of freaking saliva Kiba had left on my face, you would have thought that Akamaru had licked me. Damn boy was picking up tricks from his dog.

I wasn't much of a movie watcher, especially ones where things blew up often, so staying awake was a bit of a challenge. Once it was done though, I stood right up and followed the group out of the theater. Lee was complaining about the lack of hand to hand fighting, Sasuke was ignoring Naruto who was yelling at him for something I wasn't quite sure of, Sakura and Ino were chattering to themselves, and Kiba was trying to make Akamaru walk at his side, instead of at my side where he currently was.

"Why don't you just walk next to Akamaru, instead of making him hang back with you?" I rolled my eyes at the pouting brunette.

He frowned comically at me, "But my dog isn't supposed to like you more!"

I grinned, "Does he always do what he's supposed to do?"

"Hey Kagami, are you sure you don't need a ride home?" Naruto asked, obviously done pestering Sasuke.

I looked over at him to see said raven haired boy glaring at me over Naruto's shoulder, "I'm fine, I have a ride." I pulled out my phone and texted Gaara with a sigh. The movie had taken my mind off of him for a moment. Well, for an hour or two I guess.

"Well, me and Sasuke are gonna go then!" Naruto waved and dragged the dark haired boy with him. Sasuke looked fairly pleased that I wasn't going to be leaving with them. Whatever, just because he was Naruto's friend didn't mean we had to get along.

Soon it was just Kiba and me and I was wondering what was taking Gaara so long. He had told me he would be at the mall before the movie ended so I wouldn't have to wait too long for him.

"Hey Kagami, you think he's not going to show up?"

I looked over at Kiba, who was frowning, "Nah, he probably found some creepy goth store and forgot about the time." I grinned at him.

He pushed off the wall he had been leaning against, and Akamaru sat down, looking up at his owner with a big slobbery doggy grin. Kiba laughed, "I think Akamaru wants to stay and make sure you get home alright."

I rubbed the big white dog behind his ears, "Thanks Akamaru."

"Kagami?" Kiba laid a hand on my arm and I turned to find him standing right in front of me.

"Uh, what?" I could see his pupils growing ever so slightly smaller in the light and knew that this was too close. I wasn't sure if he was just unconscious of it, or didn't care.

His lips met mine in a motion that was not slow. There wasn't time for me to dodge or really do anything about it. I wasn't quite sure what to do about it; I just kind of stood there, frozen as Kiba pressed his lips to mine.

The image of a certain red head flashed through my mind and I pulled back abruptly, "Kiba," I said, looking at him, "I'm not--"

"If you don't get your hands off of Kagami right now mutt, I will break your neck in front of all these nice people."

There were definitely a few gasps from the nearby food court at Gaara's loud exclamation, and Kiba stepped away from me very quickly, obviously he hadn't thought of the red head's reaction until now. Although he probably didn't think Gaara would be anywhere near to see.

I turned and saw the look in those cold blue eyes. Every inch of Gaara's body was filled with tension as he got closer and I knew that letting him get to Kiba was the worst thing I could do in this moment. I didn't really think, but I went to him and said the things that came out of my mouth.

"Gaara, Gaara!" I searched his eyes and put my hands on his face, "That was nothing. I didn't want that. I don't want him, I want you Gaara." He tried to turn his head to look over my shoulder and I didn't let him. His fists clenched at his sides. My hands were about to start shaking, if he decided to push past me and go after Kiba, I wouldn't be able to do much about it. I pressed my body against his, and that got his attention. I let our faces get close, desperate to keep his attention on me, "I'm dating you, not him. Okay? I'm sorry I let it happen. It won't happen again Gaara, I promise. I'm yours."

He looped his arm around my waist and I let go of his face, letting him guide me towards the doors that led out to the parking lot, his cold turquoise eyes glanced over at Kiba once, "She is mine. Don't ever touch her again. She won't be able to stop me if you do." The last of what I said had worked, but of course he still made his threat.

I shot an apologetic look at the brunette as Gaara led me away, his arm tight around my waist and all I got was a very angry glower. Shit, I was going to have to do some really good apologizing to make up for what I had said. I might have saved Kiba from getting his face beat in, but he didn't seem to appreciate it much. I leaned into Gaara, suppressing a sigh. I couldn't make Kiba happy the way he wanted, not when I was technically already dating someone. I wasn't even sure if after this thing, whatever it was, between Gaara and me was over if there would be anything between Kiba and me. _There's always the possibility that Gaara and I end up staying together for longer than this month._ The thought was absurd though, he'd try to get what he wanted, and when he couldn't, the red head would just go back to bully-seducing me again. This was probably going to be some stupid never ending cycle. I'd figure something out.

"Don't take too long, I want to cuddle and watch television for a while before you fall asleep on me." Gaara told me as I got out of his car at my house.

I froze for a moment; he had just used the word cuddle. Like some cute, nice, normal boyfriend who wanted to spend a nice, normal evening with his girlfriend. It took me a moment to mull that over in my mind before I could answer him, "My stuff is already in my car, I'll just go straight to it."

True to my word, I almost followed Gaara to his house, only stopping to wave at my mom who pulled the curtains over to the side to peek out the living room window. There was a part of me that was a little nervous about going over to Gaara's house, even though I had already done it once before. Were things different now that we were 'officially' dating? I wondered just how far the red head was going to take this in order to get what he wanted.


	12. Sing For Me

**Thanks to xSanurax, garra-chan, pirateXfangirl, LuLu606, Clarissa Avila, Gaara-frenzy, and Micky-Moo for your wonderful reviews! Thank you everyone for being so patient with me! Life is crazy! Crazier than this fanfic! Enjoy!**

**Lyrics used in this chapter: "Breathe No More" By Evanescence**

**Chapter 12: Sing For Me**

I saw the smile that was on Temari's face as she watched Gaara grab my bag from me and motion for me to follow him up the stairs. Both she and Kankuro seemed to be happier than the last time I had been there. They were probably used to the red head bringing home skanks. I brushed the thought aside, not really wanting to think about how many girls Gaara had been with, or what he had done with them.

"So, what's the plan for tonight?" I walked into his bedroom, but didn't approach the bed where he had set my bag and then sat down himself.

That sexy smile began to curve his lips and I knew I was in trouble, but then he pushed my bag to the end of his bed and lay down, grabbing the remote to the television.

"Law and Order?" He asked, switching the TV on.

I shrugged, not quite sure what else to do and walked over to the bed, "Wanna move over?"

In one fluid motion, the red head dropped the remote and pulled me down on top of him, trapping me flush against his body, "I thought we were going to watch television." I grumbled against his mouth that pressed itself to mine.

He drew back, smiling, "I wanted a kiss first."

When he loosened his arms, I moved off of him, really confused as to his change of mood. _He was so pissed at the theater, how come he's so calm now?_ There was no way what I had said could make him completely forget what had happened. I had barely blundered my way through that one.

I was glad that Gaara had good taste in TV shows, because SVU was about the only Law and Order series that could hold my attention. Unfortunately, it wasn't doing a very good job tonight. That wasn't SVU's fault though; it was mostly because I could feel Gaara's eyes on me every time he glanced over. It was often enough that I knew he wasn't really watching the television.

I finally turned to him, "Would you stop looking at me like that?"

He frowned, but his eyes still held some of that heat. I realized that unless he was angry, when Gaara looked at me, there was almost always something sexual in his gaze. It made me uncomfortable, especially since he had made it quite clear that he was only in this relationship for one thing.

"You're too far away."

"If I move closer we probably won't end up watching much TV." I pointed out, knowing that even with the whole promise going on; we were teenagers, and too much messing around with hormones led to bad things. Gaara and I were on a little more equal footing now; he couldn't just toss me around if we were actually going to play out this relationship the correct way.

A smile curved his lips and the red head reached over to pull me close to him, "So?"

His arm looped around my waist and I ended up with my head tucked against Gaara's chest. Nestled up against him like it was the most normal thing in the world, I was suddenly gripped with fear. For me, a relationship was supposed to mean something. I had been taught that you date to find the person you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. Gaara was trying to trick me into thinking he was the one, just to take advantage of me. I'm a girl, my emotions are easy to play with, especially if he could continue to act as good as he was now, I was totally screwed unless I kept myself heavily guarded.

The red hand ran his hand down my arm, "What's wrong? You're tense." There he went again; acting completely unlike himself, pretending to be concerned because he knew it would get to me. That did it.

I pulled away from him and faced the red head, "What's wrong? Oh, I don't know. Maybe there's this guy who basically blackmailed me into a fake relationship, who is trying to make me fall in love with him so I'll have sex with him. Absolutely nothing wrong with that picture."

A smug smile formed on Gaara's face, "But you also have equal opportunity to make me fall in love with you." He leaned in and caught my hair with one hand, pulling me towards him. Our lips crashed together and he dragged the rest of my body against his with a hand on my waist. I ended up clutching at his shoulders just to keep from completely falling against him. He kissed me roughly and the red head's fingers dug into my waist in that painful way that didn't quite hurt. I was left gasping against his mouth, helpless to stop him, but not really caring. It seemed I ended up feeling like this so often. Gaara caused so much inner conflict in me.

He drew back, stroking his hand down my side, "That's not fake." There was a very satisfied light in his ice blue eyes.

"Lust isn't something to base a relationship off of, Gaara." I told him, pulling away from his touch.

The red head lay back on his pillows and turned off the TV; hands folded behind his head, "Then let's talk."

I just looked at him, wondering what the hell he was trying now.

Gaara sighed, "Get to know each other talk." His blue eyes suddenly looked piercing. Like he was actually serious about what he just said.

"Fine then." I gestured to the painted walls around us, "You do artsy stuff other than draw on your walls?"

If he had eyebrows, he would have raised one, "We're going to ask questions of each other?"

I nodded, "Now answer me."

He closed his eyes, "I like you more when you aren't afraid of me. It's sexy when you tell me what to do." He was smiling as he said it.

"Just answer my question Gaara." I ignored the heat that rose in my cheeks; he couldn't see it anyways so I would be fine.

"I have a few sketchbooks." Gaara opened his eyes and looked at me, "Maybe I'll show some of my work to you later. Now it's my turn to ask a question." He looked past me for a moment, then slowly smiled, looking back at me, "When was your first kiss?"

I looked away, the damn bastard knew exactly what the answer was, "That's none of your business." I mumbled.

"I like that I'm your first." His tone was smug, then he made a frustrated noise and I looked at him, his eyes were dark, "I'm going to kill that fucking mutt for touching you."

"Leave him alone Gaara."

Gaara turned those dark eyes more fully on me and sat up, "There had better not be anything going on between you and dog breath." His voice was low, almost a growl, and let me know that I was treading dangerous ground.

"What the hell Gaara? I'm dating you! I may not enjoy it very much, but I'm not going to cheat on you or something. I have a little bit better morals than that." My words came out clipped and angry. He was not going to insult me like that.

He smiled slowly, "Good, because I don't share at all."

"I know." I grumbled, semi glaring at him.

"It's your turn to ask a question." Gaara told me, lying back again.

"What do you like to do besides beat the shit out of people, torment me, and draw?"

He glanced at me dismissively, "Work out, sometimes I play video games with Temari and Kankuro."

That was why he was so damn strong. He probably lifted weights like everyday or something. Although he wasn't built too big, so it was probably a lighter workout. I could imagine him boxing or something too, Gaara seemed to like hitting things.

"Why do you harm yourself?"

I looked at him sharply, "That's none of your business."

He sat up against the headboard with his arms crossed, looking like he was going to stay sitting up this time, "Oh really? I'm your boyfriend; shouldn't I be concerned about something that is obviously a very poor habit?"

"You hurt other people, I hurt myself. I think my habit is better." I said in a hard voice.

Gaara uncrossed his arms, blue eyes going icy again, "You can either answer my question or we can do things you're going to regret later."

I looked down at the bed, really weighing my options in my mind. Gaara had promised not to force me to do anything I didn't want to, but like he said, we could do things, and at the time, I would enjoy it, and not have many objections, but I would regret it later. _Is it really that bad telling him why? Yeah, it's damn embarrassing, but at least you won't get into a very bad sexual situation._

"I enjoy pain." I said quietly to my lap, heat rushing up into my face and making my whole body warm. I gripped the blankets under my hands and shut my eyes, I had never told anyone, it had taken me long enough to admit it to myself, let alone tell another person who might judge me for it.

"I already knew that." There was definitely something smug in his voice.

My eyes met his through the hair that had fallen in my face, "Oh yeah?"

Gaara let out a short laugh, "You think I haven't noticed? You like it when I bite you and pull on your hair." He paused, then added in a lower voice, "It's sexy."

I looked down again, "It's not sexual when I cut myself. I don't masturbate or do anything gross like that when I do it." I muttered, I wasn't some kind of sicko that got off on cutting myself.

"But it's easily translated into sex with the right person." I glanced at him sharply and saw the smug smile, "I guess you're kind of lucky you caught my eye, other guys might be weirded out by the whole pain thing."

"Do you like pain?" I asked, mostly in anger. His smile mocked me, degraded me, and even if his words weren't judging, the look on his face was.

"You haven't finished answering mine yet, wait your turn." His blue eyes lost a bit of that mocking light, but it didn't make me relax any more.

"I told you that I like it, now answer mine."

"You told me you like pain, but not why you cut. There are lots of ways to get pain, physically and emotionally, why cutting?" This was a different Gaara, this interested, serious, but still dangerous and untrustworthy boy. He knew he was on to something that he could use against me, that would embarrass me, another thing for him to trap me with, and while I had made the decision to tell him, I wasn't quite sure if it was the lesser evil any longer.

A sigh escaped me, either I told him, or I got myself into a heap of trouble that I would hate myself even more for, "I like the scars. I can make any sort of mark on myself that I want, and get the relaxing rush of the pain all at the same time." I let it fall out of my mouth. Then I watched his face, watched his eyes widen slightly, and watched him as he closed the distance between us.

The red head pushed up my left sleeve and looked at the still healing wound from the week before, the one he had caught me with. His fingers gently traced the letters, then moved to the other lines, symbols, and words carved into my skin. Summer was the hardest, not getting to go swimming, feigning fear of the water, no tank tops around people who might try to get me to get help for it. I'd been hiding it for almost two years now.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn't quite notice Gaara dip his head down until I felt his lips on my wrist, and then his tongue running along the ridges of white scars. I jerked my hand away from him, "What the hell?"

He shrugged, a small smile on his face, "I think they're cool. You have them anywhere else besides your arms?"

I almost smiled, "You have to answer my question before I answer that. So I'll say it again, do you like pain?"

That slow, sexy smile that I saw for the first time last week after Gaara had come up with his plans for last Friday night made a return on his face, "Maybe you'll just have to find out."

For a moment, I froze, staring at his face that was only inches away from mine. Gaara had invited me to be the one in control, for me to go after him, instead of him coming after me. I had never pursued a guy in my life, let alone tried to kiss one of my own volition. What was I supposed to do? Especially since it was an experiment. _Dammit Kagami, he's letting his guard down, jump in there, he's playing a game, and you had better win it._

So I leaned into him and shoved my hands into his hair, I had to give it everything I had, or I wouldn't get him with this one. He was expecting me to back down, to let him stay in control, but there was no way that was happening. Gaara was not going to drive this relationship in any direction he wanted, we were going to do it my way. My fingers found anchors in the few inches of that brick red hair and I pulled his head back, hard, exposing the line of his pale neck. I heard the noise that he tried to suppress, deep in his throat.

"I don't think I have my answer yet." I breathed along the side of his neck, absolutely and completely uncomfortable with what I was doing, but forcing myself. If I could do this, I felt like it would somehow change something. Earn his respect? Maybe not that, but something would happen, and I was going to make it happen, because it was going to work for me.

I could see his hands balled into tight fists as I look down, he was restraining something. Maybe his urge to take over, the red head probably wasn't used to letting anyone have any iota of control over him. My lips met his skin before he could decide whether to let me continue or not, and I did what he did to me that first time in his car.

With one hand tightly fisted in his hair, and my lips on Gaara's smooth neck that smelled of his spicy scent, I made the only move I had ever made on a guy before. If the scent of his skin had been intoxicating before, now, with my lips drinking in the taste of it along with the scent, I was lost. I forgot that this was Gaara's skin that I was sucking and licking, the boy who had been so in control of me. I forgot that I really didn't know what the hell I was doing, and that my plan was most likely going to backfire on me.

I gave in to the feel of his fragile skin under my lips, teeth, and tongue, and was only brought back down to earth, and who I was holding onto when Gaara clutched at me with his hands. His fingers dug into the bared skin at my lower back, my shirt having risen up an inch or so, and I gasped involuntarily against his skin. Then one of his hands went to the back of my head, and he was suddenly holding me to him. This was it, I had him. My teeth closed around the spot on his neck that I had been giving so much attention and I bit down quick and hard, smiling fiercely against his skin when he let out a sound that was very happy.

His breathing was heavy, hot in my ear, and the next thing I knew, I was flat on my back and Gaara's lips were taking advantage of my own. He held his body above mine, his lips the only part of him touching me. The red head trailed those sinful lips down my jaw line and to my neck. I was glad I had worn a shirt with a very proper neckline. I had been smart when dressing to go out tonight. We were not going to have any accidents like last time.

Gaara moved down, his mouth hovering just over my clothed upper body. I was careful to keep my breathing shallow, no matter how my lungs screamed for air. His hands pushed the hem of my shirt up, exposing my stomach, and I was not going to let this happen.

"Gaara-"

His mouth closed over my skin and I jerked involuntarily beneath him, my hands clutching at the blankets. My mind couldn't even form the words to get him to stop, or command my hands to control his head. My stomach was even more sensitive than my neck, and Gaara had all of that at his fingertips. I made small noises that I couldn't keep from coming out as he bit his way from the top of my jeans to my pushed up shirt. I woke up a little from the exquisite sensations that were running down my body from my reddening skin to the base of my stomach when he didn't stop at my shirt.

My hands went to his head in panic, "Gaara, we are not doing that." My voice was breathy as I spoke, and he looked up at me with dark heat in those light blue eyes.

"I thought we just weren't going to have sex." His tone was very matter of fact.

I pulled his head up a little ways from my body, "Doing that sort of things lead to sex, Gaara."

He sighed, and I dropped my hands from his head, expecting him to move off of me, but he didn't. Instead, before I could latch my fingers back into his hair to protect myself, Gaara's teeth found their way around me through my shirt and bra. If I had thought that my stomach was sensitive, it was nothing compared to that more intimate part of me. His teeth closed around me just the tiniest bit harder and I cried out, not too quietly. I couldn't help it; the feeling of his teeth sinking into my skin, even through layers of cloth, just did it for me.

"God Gaara, can't you shut the door before messing around? I don't want to see that." Kankuro's whiny voice brought me back down to earth and I shoved the red head away from me, using the minor distraction to move as far from him as possible.

Gaara's ice blue eyes shot towards the door, but Kankuro was already gone, and I thought I heard a trail of laughter down the hallway. He hadn't shut the door. The red head shot me a hot look and walked over to the door, shutting it. With a devious smile, he turned back to me and stalked towards the bed.

"No, we are not doing anything else." I said firmly, putting my back against the wall, "Besides, you had some sketches you were going to show me."

He shrugged, a slightly disappointed look in his eyes, but he walked over to a bookshelf and pulled a notebook off of it. Gaara tossed it to me on the bed, "That's a fairly recent one that I filled up."

Gaara was an amazing artist. He drew everything. Birds, people, water, scenery, houses, clothes, you name it, he had drawn it, and it was all beautiful. Every single thing he had chosen to draw was something beautiful, or he had somehow made it beautiful in the way he had captured it.

I looked up at him and he was standing at the edge of the bed, "These are amazing, Gaara." I didn't hide the wonder in my voice. He could sell some of this stuff.

He shrugged and took the sketchbook from me, "They're just drawings."

I stared at his back as he walked back over to the bookshelf, "Are you kidding me? You could be a famous artist with the pencil drawings you do. Do you paint at all?"

Those ice blue eyes turned on me, "Do you have any hobbies?" His question was clearly asked only to change the subject, but I answered it anyways.

"Yeah. I play guitar and video games." I shrugged, "Not much of anything else."

Gaara sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes locked on my face, "Guitar?"

I glanced away, "Yeah, I sing a little too. For my church mostly."

"Do you write your own music?"

My head jerked up and I saw the genuine curiosity in his eyes, "I'm not very good at it, but I try." I said quietly.

"Would you sing a song for me?"

I froze, locked in those light blue eyes, not sure what to say.

"It doesn't have to be something you've written." His voice was soft, and his smile was too.

"I—uh-"

"Please."

Gaara had said please. How the hell was I supposed to resist that? Paired with the eager look on his face that had nothing to do with anything sexual, I was lost.

"Okay." I said, my voice barely there, "Uh, are you familiar with Evanescence?"

"Familiar enough."

I sat up and fought the burning in my cheeks, I really didn't want to sing for him, but at the same time I couldn't really say no, unless I faked stage fright. So I took a deep breath and sang.

"I've been looking in the mirror for so long that I've come to believe my soul's on the other side. All the little pieces fallen, shattered, shards of me too sharp to put back together. Too small to matter, but big enough to cut me into so many little pieces. If I try to touch her and I bleed, I bleed, and I breathe, I breathe no more." Having Gaara's eyes watch me so intently was too much for me to take, so I closed my eyes as I sang the rest of the song, shutting out the image of ice blue orbs absorbing only me.

"Beautiful." The red head breathed when I stopped singing. He reached out to touch my face, a soft look in his eyes, a soft look, in _Gaara's_ eyes. Then his lips curved, "You look sexy when you sing."

I rolled my eyes at him, "I don't believe that."

The red head closed the distance between us in a fraction of a second and crushed his lips to mine, stealing my breath away with his kiss, "Believe it."

**Author's Note: Arrggg! I couldn't resist these two! They just walked right into my head the other night and wouldn't stay out! So here I am, writing fanfiction when I should be writing the last few chapters of my novel! ^.^ I hope you loved it!**


	13. Something Secret

**Thank you to CloudsOfRabbits, JessicaLovezU, Clarissa Avila, windwolf1988, Sanura, Shina no Miko, Gaara-frenzy, and LuLu606 for your reviews! I'm so glad everyone enjoys my story, even though I've not been very good about updates. Here's the wonderful Chapter 13!**

**Chapter 13: Something Secret**

I woke to my nose buried in blankets that were filled with Gaara's scent. It was only my second time waking up in the red head's bed, but I didn't panic this time. The only thing that confused me was that there was no arm wrapped around me, no body pressed against my back. I rolled over and saw that Gaara wasn't in the room. Glancing at the clock, I frowned, he had complained about waking up last weekend at nine. It was a half hour earlier and he was no where to be seen.

I got up and pulled on some clothes, then went down into the kitchen. Gaara wasn't there, neither were either of his siblings. I wondered if they were late sleepers like him, or just had jobs.

The red head wasn't in the living room, either, I discovered as I walked into the last room I really could think of to search in. I sighed, I hadn't seen the whole house, so he could be anywhere, it was a big place. I opened a few doors before I found the stairs that led into the basement.

I took the steps down to the door at the base and opened it to the largest in-home gym I had ever seen. My eyes glanced over all the equipment quickly though, because there was something so much better to see. Gaara, wearing only a pair of basketball shorts.

His back was to me, and I could see he had ear buds in his ears. Other than the black basketball shorts, he had tape wrapped around his hands and knuckles. He was pounding the shit out of a red punching bag, hanging from the ceiling, and it looked like he had been at it for a while. Sweat was pouring down his back, making the pale skin glisten in the lights. I watched the powerful play of muscles in his body as he hit the bag over and over, throwing in kicks every so often.

Time became nothing important as I stood there watching him, unable to see the expression on his face. I began to feel the tension in him though, and it was only building. I wasn't so sure that this was just a workout. I thought about interrupting him, but as I watched the impact his fists made on the bag, I thought better of it. Just as I was about to walk away and leave him alone, I saw the blood soaking the tape on his knuckles.

That changed my mind. I rushed up behind him and put a firm hand on his shoulder, my body tense in case he attacked me. I blocked his punch as he whirled around, but couldn't stop his other hand from closing around my neck. I stared into his ice blue eyes, stunned by the wild, almost feral, look that I saw there. His hand dropped from his neck and he ripped the ear buds from his ears.

"What the hell are you doing here?" The acid in those words let me know Gaara was pissed. I wasn't going to back down.

"You're hurting yourself." I grabbed his wrist and dug my nails into the flesh when he tried to yank his hand away. I narrowed my eyes at him, then unwrapped the tape from his hand. "Fuck." The skin on his knuckles was completely gone. Most of the tape on his knuckles was shredded too. I glared at him, "You should be wearing gloves when you do something like that. You barely have any skin left."

Gaara snatched his hand away, his blue eyes cold, "It is none of your concern."

I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at him with raised eyebrows, "Oh, it isn't, is it? I'm your girlfriend; shouldn't I be concerned about something that is obviously a poor habit?"

His eyes narrowed, "Don't even try that bullshit on me."

Gaara tried to push past me, but I grabbed his arm, aware of the sweat that made my grip on him slick, "Don't try to pull _this_ bullshit on me, Gaara. You don't get to make all the rules. We're going to take care of your hands. _Now._"

He scowled at my hand on his arm, "Don't bother yourself with it, I can take care of it myself."

There was no way I was letting the red head win this one. He was weak, vulnerable, right now and he knew I knew it. That was why he was trying to run away. No one pounded their hands raw just working out. Gaara had something eating away at him inside. Maybe there was a reason behind his violence, in his gym, and at school.

I tightened my grip on him and began pulling him along with me to the stairs, "I'll bother myself with whatever I want."

I was surprised that Gaara didn't say anything as I dragged him up two flights of stairs to the bathroom where he had shown me the gauze before. When I turned to look at him, he had a sullen look on his face and was unwrapping the tape on the other hand. He didn't wince when the tape stuck to his shredded knuckles.

I took the blood soaked tape and threw it in the garbage, then grabbed his hands and stuck them under the faucet in the sink, running warm water over them. It had to sting, but Gaara didn't show it on his face at all, "You shouldn't destroy your hands like this. Be more careful when you use that punching bag." I said as I gently patted his hands dry. I tried not to grimace at the blood on the towel. His knuckles wouldn't stop bleeding.

"You shouldn't cut yourself. Be more careful around razor blades." I glared at him sharply for the retort, then grabbed some antiseptic from the cabinet.

"So why were you beating your knuckles bloody?" I didn't look up from dabbing the antiseptic on his knuckles.

"I was working out."

"At eight thirty in the morning?" I looked up at him, one eyebrow raised, "I thought nine was too early to wake up."

His light colored eyes narrowed, "I couldn't sleep." There was a growling edge to his voice that was warning me to back off. Yeah right. I was finally on to something that seemed to scratch more than just the surface of Gaara.

"So you go and beat the shit out of your punching bag?" I reached for the gauze and began wrapping it around his right hand, making sure it was tight enough that the blood wouldn't just seep out from underneath it.

"I told you, working out is one of my hobbies." His voice was smoother now, deceptive.

"Mhmm." I said, not believing him, "And you make your knuckles bleed every time you go to hit that bag? I've never seen any wounds on your hands before, not even when you hit someone else." I raised my eyes to his once I finished bandaging the other hand. They were bulky, but he'd had to wear them at least until the bleeding stopped.

"Leave it alone Kagami." Gaara growled at me, pulling his hands away from me.

"I'll leave it alone when you leave me alone. Now tell me what the hell is going on. Did you have a bad dream or something?" I kept my voice firm, even though I was sure there were going to be repercussions to this conversation, if I could even get Gaara to admit anything.

He turned away, "Or something."

I grabbed his arm as he tried to leave the bathroom, not letting myself be distracted by all of his bare flesh. It was a little harder now that I didn't have his wounds to concentrate on.

"Something like what?"

"Something I don't want to talk about."

There. I heard it. Something close to defeat in his voice, not the hard words before. There was something underneath that hard exterior. Gaara had a secret.

"Fine. We'll talk about it some other time. I want breakfast." I brushed past him to head down the stairs. I had control of this now. I would figure out how to get him to tell me, and he _would_ tell me.

This time Gaara grabbed my arm and made me turn to face him. His eyes were hard, "We're not going to talk about it. Ever."

I shrugged his hand off, "Eventually."

He made a frustrated noise deep in his throat, "I'm going to take a shower."

"Okay." I left him to find something to eat.

Sitting at the breakfast table, I wondered about my discovery. Did it have something to do with his parents? They seemed to be a touchy subject too. I remembered the dinner last week, definitely a touchy subject.

Kankuro wandered into the kitchen while I was eating the cereal I had found, "Hey Kagami."

"Good morning." He didn't have a shirt on, and I noticed that he was built a lot like Gaara, but wasn't quite as muscular. Gaara probably just worked out more.

I decided now was as good of a time as any to figure something out, so I took a deep breath, "What's with you guys living on your own?"

I watched the surprise flash through his eyes as he kept looking into the fridge. He slowly raised his head, "Temari is old enough to live on her own, we like living with her here."

I let my eyes wander around the room obviously, "This is a pretty nice house for three teenagers who are probably living on close to minimum wage salary."

Kankuro leaned over the counter to lock his eyes with mine, "We don't talk about our parents, okay? Gaara doesn't like it."

"And you guys are scared of Gaara?" I asked, "He's your _younger_ brother."

Kankuro shook his head, "We're not scared of him, we love him and respect him. That's why we don't talk about our parents. It's best for all of us that we don't live with them. Leave it alone."

I narrowed my eyes at him, their parents didn't sound like they were the best people, "Is there something about your parents that would give him nightmares?"

Something flickered in his eyes and he looked away for a moment, "Nothing."

"Bullshit." I said, standing up and moving around the counter, "I want to know why the hell I woke up and found Gaara beating the bloody hell out of a punching bag, hard enough to scrape the backs of his hands raw through the tape." I took a step forward, trapping the taller boy between me and the refrigerator.

"Stop bullying Kankuro, Kagami." Gaara's tense voice made me look away from his older brother.

I frowned at him, he still wasn't wearing a shirt, he had only put on a pair of jeans, "Go get dressed." I muttered, stepping away from Kankuro.

The red head reached out and snagged my arm, dragging me up against his body before I could pull away. His mouth hovered next to my ear and I struggled against him, "Stop asking questions. Or we'll do something you won't like."

His grip loosened and I pulled away, "Whatever. I'm going home." I stalked up the stairs and put my things in my bag. When I was finished, I turned to see Gaara standing in the doorway.

Seeing his half naked body framed by the doorway nearly took my breath away, as did the sultry look on his face. His hair was still slightly damp from the shower, darker than the brick color it usually was, almost crimson. I really had to work to frown, "What?"

"I don't want you to leave yet." His voice was soft, but it wasn't gentle. There was and edge to it, an edge I didn't really want to step on to.

"I don't want to stay anymore." I said, zipping up my bag and standing up.

"I was hoping you would stay another night." He pushed off of the doorframe and moved to stand in front of me. Gaara snatched the bag from my hands and tossed it on the bed.

"I can't stay another night." I said, thankful that I could give him a true excuse, "I have to go to church with my family in the morning." I was having a hard time keeping eye contact with him. He had that dark look in his eyes, letting me know his mind was definitely on things best left alone. Not to mention that his smooth chest was bare to me, and way too close.

His expression changed, and I recognized that he had thought of something that was definitely going to sound pleasant and wonderful, but would end up working towards some part of his devious plan, "Would I be able to accompany you and your family tomorrow, then?" A smile curved his lips.

I took a step back, "Uh, I don't know…."

"Shouldn't I meet your parents anyways? Since we're dating?"

So that's what this was about. Hell no. I did not want my parents meeting Gaara. I shook my head, "No way. My parents will kill me."

He cocked his head cutely, "Are you not allowed to date?"

"I am." I said slowly, "But seriously Gaara, you are not exactly going to be top pick of any parents for their daughters to date."

"Oh? And why is that?"

I couldn't tell whether he was angry or amused. I crossed my arms over my chest, "Are you kidding me? You beat kids up for the hell of it, you blackmailed me into this relationship, and you're only in it for sex. You'd be lucky if my parents didn't pull me out of school after meeting you."

Gaara took a step towards me, a smile curving his lips slowly, "You think I can't behave myself?"

My heart froze in its tracks and I just stared at him. Images went through my mind. Gaara shaking my dad's hand, smiling warmly at my mom; patiently answering questions about his tattoo and makeup. "You seriously….want to meet my parents?" I managed to choke out.

His arm went around my waist and he pulled me against his chest, "I don't want you to have to keep me a secret, especially since I plan on taking you out quite often."

His smile was so innocent I put my hands flat against his chest, "What's in it for you?"

"We won't have to sneak around."

"My parent won't let me stay the night at your house."

"They don't have to know Temari is my sister." His smile turned devious.

I sighed, "That's sneaking around."

Gaara rolled his ice blue eyes at me, "Give me a break Kagami, I can't just instantly be perfect." He grinned. Gaara _grinned_. "I need at least a week or so."

My mouth nearly fell open as I stared at him. What were these words coming out of Gaara's mouth? He changed gears so abruptly. Going from pissed to…whatever the hell this was.

"So I'll come meet your parents and go to church with you?" Gaara's eyes were practically glowing as he looked down at me, gaping at him.

"Uh. Um. I guess." I stuttered out.

His lips met mine in a brief, but electrifying kiss, "Cool." Gaara smiled at me, "What should we do for the rest of today?"

I was in a daze the rest of the day. I wasn't quite sure what had really happened. First thing in the morning, I thought Gaara was going to kill me, but suddenly he wanted to play the role of the good boyfriend and meet my parents and go to church with me. Something was up. Unfortunately, it didn't keep me from watching the sexy red head as he refused to put a shirt on the rest of the day.

"It's hot." He said after I complained about it.

"It's wintertime, dumbass. It's not hot." I shot back, taking the controller from Kankuro when it was my turn.

"I'll put a shirt on if you can beat me in three rounds of Soul Caliber." The red head smiled at me, taking the other controller.

"Might as well go get your shirt now, since I'm going to kick your ass."

Gaara just chuckled at me as he switched games out of the PS2 and we selected characters. He won. I was stuck resisting Gaara without a shirt on all day. I didn't resist much.

Is it really necessary for me to reiterate that I am completely screwed?


	14. My Parents

**Chapter 14: My Parents **

When I got home that evening, I walked into the living room and decided just to get it over with. I dropped my bag on the floor and looked at my parents, who were watching something on TV.

"Mom? Dad?" I said, loud enough to be heard over the television.

"Yeah?" My dad looked over at me, my mom only glanced.

I fought the blush that I could feel rising in my neck, "My boyfriend wants to meet you guys and come to church tomorrow." I said in a quick rush.

My dad just stared at me, mouth open a little. My mom turned off the television and said, "When did you get a boyfriend, Kagami?"

I looked down at the ground, not wanting to see their reactions anymore. My mom looked worried, "Just a few days ago."

"How long have you known the kid?" My dad asked once he recovered from staring at me.

My eyes darted up to his, he didn't seem angry, "Uh, when school started."

"Honey," my mom said quietly, sitting up more, instead of leaning against my dad, her grey eyes serious, "I've told you before, don't feel like you have to have a boyfriend to fit in, okay?"

"I really like him, mom." I said quietly, not elaborating. It was already barely the truth. I liked some things about Gaara, but not many. He mostly just interested me….and played hell with my hormones. "His name is Gaara." I added.

My mom glanced at my left hand, "Is he the one who gave you that ring?"

Heat rose in my cheeks, "Yes. It's a promise ring."

"If you're sure about this sweetie, we'll meet him tomorrow. Is he coming here?" My mom looked softer instead of serious. Whew, she believed me. I did not want to have to explain anything. At all.

"He's coming over in the morning. I figured you guys could meet him before church and he could hang around here a bit afterwards." I shrugged a little and picked up my bag, feeling that the conversation was pretty much over. I had no doubt that once I left the room my parents would whisper about it to each other.

My dad managed a small curve of his lips, his green eyes not quite smiling along, "Okay."

The next morning, I answered the door when there was a knock. My mom smiled at me as I got up from the living room and I caught Karin's thinly veiled glare.

"Hey Gaara." I said when I opened the door, forcing a bright smile onto my face.

When he saw me, the red head smiled seductively, then stepped in the door and pulled me into his arms, "Kagami." My name was barely a breath on his lips. It nearly made me shudder in his arms. Only the fact that my parents could see the doorway from the living room kept me from melting against him completely.

I pulled back and was glad when he didn't hold on or try to kiss me in front of my family. He reached back and pulled the door closed. Gaara grabbed my hand and led me to the living room. I was a little behind, this was happening too fast. Gaara was going to meet my parents! My parents were going to meet Gaara!

"Uh, mom, dad, this is Gaara." I managed a tight, nervous smile as they caught sight of him fully.

I could see the way my dad's eyes narrowed when he looked at Gaara's face, that he wasn't happy. Jeez, this was not going to be fun.

Gaara took his hand from mine and extended it to my father, "It's nice to meet you, Mr. Yamaguchi."

My dad took his hand almost tentatively, eyeing the smile on Gaara's face. I was watching the red head just as closely. I didn't blame my dad. Fortunately, there was nothing devious in his smile whatsoever. It was the most honest expression I had ever seen on the red head's face.

"Nice to meet you too, Gaara." My dad barely managed to say it without his teeth clenching around the words.

My mom rose from where she was sitting across the room, "Hi Gaara, I'm Kagami's mother." Her smile was bright; I couldn't see anything judgmental in her gaze.

My dad let go of Gaara's hand and the red head took my mom's in his, his smile brightened, "Hello Mrs. Yamaguchi, I see where Kagami gets her lovely eyes now."

I nearly choked. He sounded so sincere, and as cheesy as the compliment was, it didn't sound cheesy coming from the red head's mouth. It sounded like the most normal thing in the world to say.

My mom nearly blushed, "Thank you Gaara."

He turned to my dad and smiled apologetically, "I am sorry for asking your daughter out without your permission, Mr. Yamaguchi." Gaara took my hand in his and glanced at me for a moment, something strangely possessive, but not inappropriate in his gaze. He spoke again when he looked at my dad, "I would have asked first, but was afraid someone else would steal her away."

I heard Karin's sharp intake of breath at Gaara's words, and watched my dad's eyes flicker over the red head's face, "It's not like you are marrying her or anything. Not that formal." He grumbled, barely audible.

Gaara smiled and tightened his hand around mine, "Thank you for allowing me to date Kagami."

I could barely keep my own expression still as I listened to Gaara charm my parents. I had thought the best I could hope for was for him not to ravage me in front of them. He was being….perfect. None of it seemed overboard coming from him either. He pulled off the perfect boyfriend without looking like an ass. It was not something I ever imagined Gaara being able to do. Damn boy with his perfect fakeness.

"It's about time to leave. Are you taking your car Gaara?" My mom asked, making my dad look away from the red head's face.

Gaara grinned at me, "Yes. I will drive Kagami to church. I'm sure she can direct me there."

I really hoped that neither my mom or dad, especially my dad, caught the twinkle in Gaara's eyes as he looked at me. He was probably planning on attacking me in the car or something. I fought not to roll my eyes at my own thoughts.

"What happened to your neck, Gaara?" Karin asked, her voice ringing out across the living room.

I looked sharply at the band aid on his throat and struggled to keep the blush down. It was where I had given him a hickey the other night. I didn't meet my sister's eyes, knowing she would be able to read my expression too easily.

Gaara managed an embarrassed chuckle, "I was clumsy with the razor this morning."

"Okay." I said, pulling him towards the door, "Let's go."

I ignored Karin's gaze on me as I nearly dragged Gaara out the front door, barely stopping to grab my purse on the way out.

The red head grinned at me as I closed the door behind us, "Your sister has it out for me, doesn't she?"

"She knows that you aren't as nice as you are trying to convince my parents you are." I told him. My eyes went to his car and I froze in my tracks, staring at the sleek black thing with tinted windows. The first time I had been in that car, my entire world had changed. It had only been two weeks ago that I thought Gaara was going to have his way with me in the back seat of his car, and in a way, he had. What the hell was I doing? Bringing Gaara to meet my parents? Letting him pretend to be my sweet, nice boyfriend? There was nothing sweet and nice about Gaara, the first time he had kissed me proved that beyond a doubt; the way he had blackmailed me into being with him not even a week after we had met. I had vowed that day that Gaara made me go over to his house for the first time that I would never tell him where I lived, and here he was, at my house, about to drive me to church. What the hell was wrong with me?

"Kagami."

I turned to see the smile in Gaara's words reflected on his face. That smug smile that fit him so well, and only proved more how not nice he was.

"We aren't going to be in the backseat this time." He was nearly grinning at me.

I ripped my hand out of his with a scowl and trudged the rest of the way over to his car. I refused to meet his eyes over the roof as he unlocked the doors. Those laughing, mocking eyes that knew exactly that I had been thinking the instant I saw his damned car. Without looking into the backseat, I got into the passenger seat and buckled myself in.

In one graceful, quick movement, Gaara slid into the driver's seat and unbuckled my seatbelt, pulling me halfway across the middle console.

"Gaara!" I managed to choke out before his mouth closed over mine and cut off my ability to speak, or do anything but feel his hands on my waist and his lips on mine.

He drew back with a self satisfied smile, "Good morning."

I glared at him, then stared for a moment. His usually dark makeup seemed a little lighter today, and not like eyeliner at all. It almost looked faded, like a…"Is your makeup a tattoo?" I asked loudly, not believing I hadn't noticed it before. No wonder I hadn't seen him without makeup, ever.

"Yes. I usually darken it with makeup, but decided it best not to today." Gaara shrugged.

I raised an eyebrow at him as I put myself back in my seat and he started the car, "Because a tattoo is so much more subtle than makeup." I commented sarcastically.

The red head glanced over at me before driving away from the curb, "Give me directions before I take us someplace other than your church service."

Suppressing a glare, I pointed him in the right direction and flipped through the iPod tucked into a space below the in dash stereo it was connected to and settled on some music. There was so much heavy metal on the damn device that I had a hard time finding something I could stand to listen to without my ears wincing.

We met up with my parents and Karin once we got to the church my family had been attending since we moved, having chosen it mostly because it was close to where we lived. The service wasn't completely boring and the music was good, so we stayed. It had always been a family consensus where we went to church and we usually all agreed on a place.

During the service, I was uncomfortable, which is not normal for me during church service. I love singing and having a peaceful time, church was a pause in a world so full of noise and busyness. Today I could feel Gaara's eyes on me and my dad's eyes on the red head.

"I love hearing you sing." Gaara leaned over and whispered in my ear partway through the service. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the thinly veiled glare my dad was sending my boyfriend. I stiffened at my inner use of that word. Boyfriend. I had never had a boyfriend before and had certainly never imagined my first relationship to end up like this. Whatever this was, exactly. I was still trying to figure it out.

After a tense lunch at home where my mother tried to include Gaara in the conversation and my dad tried his best to pretend he was okay with the boy sitting next to me at the table, the red head went home and I sat down with my parents.

"What the hell dad?"

He frowned at me, green eyes angry, "Don't talk to me like that, Kagami."

I crossed my arms over at my chest, noticing my mother watching us, "I bring my first boyfriend over for the first time and you treat him like he's the fricken plague." I didn't care how Gaara had gotten to me, my dad didn't know anything about it and he had no right to treat another person the way he had treated Gaara without knowing anything about him.

"I'm your father, I'm supposed to be judgmental when it comes to boys you bring home." He said gruffly, finally looking a little embarrassed about his actions.

"You did treat him a little harshly, dear." My mother said quietly.

"If you think you need to scare him, it's not going to work." I muttered, wondering what could possibly scare the red head. So far it didn't seem like anything scared him, except whatever was causing him to get up and punch his knuckles raw.

My father looked at me, frowning harder, "I'm sorry Kagami, but I'm not going to be easy on any boy that wants to date you. There are standards to be met and this Gaara kid makes me uneasy. Karin mentioned his reputation as a delinquent at school. I don't approve of you associating with someone who does not follow rules well."

I nearly rolled my eyes; of course my dad would interrogate Karin about Gaara. It seemed she hadn't told him just how bad Gaara was, if my dad knew the red head beat on other kids regularly, he'd pull me out of school and refuse to let me see Gaara. My reaction to that thought shocked me, I was uneasy that I felt torn about potentially never seeing the red head again. I didn't like that feeling.

Looking at my dad, I sighed, "I'm not going to stop seeing him, so you might as well stop focusing on rumors and actually get to know him."

"There are going to be rules about you going out with him." My dad said sternly.

I got up, "Oh sure." I acknowledged him as I left the room, knowing that Gaara would be breaking those rules as quickly as dad made them, wondering how long it would be before I was told I wasn't allowed to see the red head again. I was giving it a week.

**Author's Note: It's been a while. I apologize, I've been trying to put my writing talents to other uses (particularly school and the novels I am working on) but Gaara and Kagami started to bother me again. So here is the latest chapter (that for the most part has been sitting gathering dust in my folders, waiting for me to finish it) of Breaking Points. Enjoy.**


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